They promised them very happily. They went out to sea with joy and a lot of wind in their favor. They were convinced that they would sail through the waters with elegance and lightness. No dead calms that leave the boats as if they had dropped anchor. Soon they would be filling the holds with fish stolen from the liquid element.
The crew was excited. They believed themselves to be the best sailors in the world. Yes, there were some who warned that so much confidence in one's abilities could come to nothing if nature did its thing and recommended not going too far from the coast, but they were accused of being doomsayers and cowards .
Once on the high seas, when there was no time to turn back, things got complicated. The wind increased in intensity, the waves began to rock the ship like a nutshell, and, to make matters worse, it seemed that the captain was determined to make the wrong decisions .
The prudent then raised their voices. They said: “ Did we not warn you? Only you fools were unable to see that a gale was approaching .” But the reaction of the rest was to blame them for the calamity that threatened to sink the ship and everyone on it. Instead of working together to keep it afloat, they ended up getting into a fight .
Then a young man, just out of adolescence, in charge of assisting the obese and drunken old clergyman who "tended" the sailors spiritually, appeared on deck with an iron monstrance, rusty and full of grime, but with the best treasure in it. . And he said: “ Either we cry out to Christ or we sink .”
Many laughed at him: “ Can what you are carrying in your hands stop the waves? “; Others said they could not waste time praying while the ship was in clear danger of capsizing. And quite a few simply chose not to even look at the face of the boy and the face of the One whom he carried. But then the old, obese and drunken clergyman, moved by the bravery of his acolyte , appeared on deck and as if he had received the strength of an angel, he cried out with a loud voice: “ Wretched human remains. You are about to appear before the Lord and dare to mock the only one of us who has thought of Him to get us out of the madness into which our pride has put us .
They had never seen such a sparkle in his eyes before. From his tattered body, badly wounded by sin, emanated a strength that could not be matched by the storm that was taking them to the abyss.
All, without exception, bowed their knees to the ground before the boy who held the Custody aloft: “ Lord, save us, for we are perishing ” (Matt 8:25). And the Lord repeated the miracle of the Sea of Galilee. Because of the little faith of those men and because of the great faith of the young faithful and the converted priest, “ he rebuked the winds and the sea and a great calm ensued ” (Mt 8:26).
Once they were saved, the clergyman approached the boy Telegram Number Data and asked him: “ How did you think of doing that? “. The boy said: “ While I was praying, I remembered the visit of the angel of the Lord to Saint Paul on the ship that was taking him to Italy and that was about to shipwreck and I said to myself: ' Here at my side I have someone greater than an angel " . And he added: “ Now it is your turn to save them from something more dangerous than physical death .”
The entire crew confessed to the elderly, obese, and drunken clergyman before returning to land. And none of those souls were lost, because all of them remembered for the rest of their lives the young man carrying in his arms the One whom the winds hear and the waters obey . The miracle of his redemption was greater than that of his salvation from shipwreck.
Peter's boat is greater than that boat. There is no storm, past or coming in the future, that can sink it. Not even the miseries, arrogance and fights of those of us who are in it. There will always be a young and an old convert willing to awaken to Christ in time . The same thing happens with your life. If you think you are about to be shipwrecked, you are already taking too long to come to worship Him and implore Him to save you.