On Tuesday at daily Mass was the great story of Jesus walking on water and Peter asking if he could come to Jesus on the water.  This is one of my favorite stories in the Gospel because it shows us the reality of discipleship.  While Mary, our Blessed Mother, is THE MODEL disciple that we all should aspire to be, St. Peter is the reality of what discipleship looks like amid those of us who weren't Immaculately conceived.  

    Once peter recognized it was Jesus on the water he calls out to Jesus wanting to join Him and Jesus tells him to come.  Peter has that initial trust and gets out of the boat, amid a storm, and starts walking on water toward Jesus with the same gusto and enthusiasm we all have at times of our life; however, then fear sets in, we start to doubt, and then like Peter, we fall into the water and back into the depths of our sinfulness.  Hopefully, however, we have the courage as Peter did to call out to Jesus for help!  After Peter called to Jesus for help, we read in scripture, “Jesus immediately stretched out his hand and caught him.”  

    Here is what we can learn from this amazing story: discipleship looks like something.  It looks like Peter having courage to follow Jesus, failing and falling into the depths of our doubts/fears/sins, calling out to Jesus for help, and taking His hand when he immediately stretches out to help us.  That’s discipleship!  

    Peter continues to annoy, fail, and misunderstand Jesus throughout the Gospels; but, Jesus still chooses him to be the Rock and the first Pope of the Body of Christ.  It doesn’t matter how many times Peter failed, what matters is that as soon as Peter fails, he calls out to Jesus for help.  How often do we look to other people and things for help before Jesus?  Do we even have that initial trust to walk on water?  Lets follow Peters example and trust in Jesus to immediately stretch out His hand to help us.

St. Peter, pray for us.