[00:00] There must have been many things that went through St. Peter's mind in this scenario. One minute they're on a calm sea, then it's a stormy sea. Our Lord happens not to be with them. Of all times, they could be thinking, He's with us all the time, and then now we're in this big storm being tossed back and forth. At that point, they would have known that He could do whatever He wants.

[00:34] They're thinking, He's not with us, so we're going to capsize. Of all times, for Him to decide just to go off on a mountain and pray and send us off by ourselves. The next thing you know, our Lord's walking on the water towards them. In a moment of fervor, he decides to ask our Lord to call upon him. Our Lord calls him, gets out on the water, and then he's sinking. You can imagine a storm.

[01:05] You're walking on water all of a sudden, then you start to sink. You're panicking because he's sinking like, "I'm going under." Our Lord wants to have a conversation with him as if it's a normal thing. Our Lord says to him, "Oh, you of little faith, why do you doubt?" It's like, well, can we have this conversation when I get back in the boat? St. Peter, besides going through this whole array of emotions and circumstances all within

[01:37] moments, however long it was that it took place, it was just a brief, short time that he went from courage to fear, to despair, and then to humility in accepting the correction of our Lord. But in all of this, our Lord was teaching him many lessons, and the lessons that He wanted to teach him were going to be things that would strengthen him against the coming

[02:11] trials. St. Peter would still have a whole life ahead of him to live and to confront many hardships, many things that he would have to do as a requirement of being the head apostle and being an apostle in general, as far as preaching the Word of God. St. Peter needed to know the level of faith that it would require to work miracles, but

[02:42] at the same time be humble, to work miracles and realize that it's our Lord who is the source of all power and miracles, to be able to walk on the water when it came to being a witness to our Lord, and that is exactly what he was able to accomplish. Despite his weaknesses, despite everything that he had going against him as far as his natural character, St. Peter realized that no matter what, as long as I call on our Lord,

[03:19] He will come with His help, but also His mercy, and he learned that as well when he denied our Lord and then he was able to come back. He understood two things, that everything that happens to us is from the providence of God, whether good or bad, it's all allowed by God or ordained by God so that we might

[03:50] reach a level of holiness that will allow us to go straight to heaven when we finish our mission and our pilgrimage in this life. Then he also learned the abundance of God's mercy, that despite our weaknesses, God can make up where we lack, that He has a mission, a plan for each one of us within His providence, and we have to take courage and not be afraid to call on Him, and when He asks us to come

[04:26] to Him, whether it be walking on the water or being hung upside down and crucified to a cross, that He has everything under control, and that if the worst thing they can do to us is take away our life, then we're in a good position because our Lord is the one that can bridge that gap between death and life, life and death, this world and the next.

[04:57] So let us have confidence in all that we've been given as a witness before us of God's goodness, of His power, of His ability to bring weak human creatures to the fulfillment of their true nature of being children of God, as long as we are willing and we have the humility to see everything as coming from our Lord's hand.