Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.  And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.

Step out of the boat of reason and head out to meet Jesus on the naked and stormy waters of faith.  Remaining in the boat seems to offer security at first but you see how it is battered by the waves.  Those in it are imperiled and do not know what will become of them.  Clearly they need rescued; they cannot of their own power take themselves to safety.

Step out of the boat!  Jesus beckons to you "Come!"  Reason rebels and says to you:  "This is madness.  What will become of you?  More importantly, what will my part be if you decide to proceed in naked faith?"  The master awaits your decision.  The heart knows what to do even if the head does not.  The heart knows it has been created, knows it desires redemption and Divine communion.

This is the moment that will change the rest of your life.  You do the absurd.  You get out of yourself and walk towards Jesus on the raging sea of naked faith.  His arm is outstretched.  At first, faith seems exquisite and sweet.  This total abandonment is intoxicating and one truly seems to be walking on the water.  But then the storms of life come raging back into focus.  The walk toward Jesus did not calm the inner storm, did not resolve the problem of suffering.  Now for the second time we face a crisis.  But this time our prior commitment has trained us in what to do, so we cry out to the Lord for help.  We realize we are not the primary actor in all this.  Our gaze turns back to Christ and we learn to look toward him in all things.

In the end it is Jesus who grasps us, lifts us up and brings us back to ourselves.  After the naked fright of an abandonment to faith we are permitted to come back to reason.  But now Jesus is in the boat with us and that makes all the difference.  With him we truly do find ourselves.

We are still in this life of uncertainty, we are still in the boat.  But our act of profound faith and belief in the Son of God means he is now there with us.  We know that storms will invariably arise in the future, but he is with us.  Sometimes he seems to be asleep in the back of the boat but only so that our faith may remain strong.