The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (14:22-34)
Our Lord Jesus Christ was praying late one night while up on a mountain. He had just finished with the overwhelming crowds. He was with them all day, teaching, preaching, healing, feeding. He was definitely exhausted since we know that He shares in our human nature, and yet our Lord tells us something about Himself and about prayer through this passage. He did not run to find a place to sleep and rest. Our Lord Jesus took His rest with God His Father. It required Him to climb the mountain of prayer, to make an effort. To choose between extra sleep and extra time with the Father. To speak to God His Father was worth the effort, worth the sacrifices, and worth the climb up the mountain.

When we see this image of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are reminded that in order to pray one has to go with some effort towards God. It will often feel like an uphill battle, like a climb. Prayer is not just words into the air, but real communication with the living God. One goes uphill not only in their efforts but spiritually. Prayer is an ascent towards the heavenly. When we are in prayer, really in prayer, we are high above the rest of the world. We have laid aside all earthly cares in order to focus out hearts and minds on God. This is so precious and special that real work is required of us. Sometimes prayer comes very easily and other times, most times, it takes a real effort. St. Barsanuphius of Optina said “In the struggle of prayer, it is absolutely necessary to force oneself and compel oneself to pray.” It is difficult, but it is worth the effort and it is very much the goal of a Christian to learn to climb towards Christ in our prayers and in our lives.

In the midst of the Lord’s prayers on the mountain, we are told that the disciples traveled by boat and where caught in rough waves and strong winds. The Lord waited for this moment and came to the disciples, in the middle of the night, walking upon the surface of the sea. This sight terrified the disciples. No one could imagine such an event. Even though the disciples had seen many miracles, still they did not comprehend what their eyes were seeing in that very moment. The Lord cried out to them, “take heart, it is I, have no fear.” I find this to be a beautiful and comforting image. How often we have storms in our life and we feel the waters of life surging and the winds swirling around us? Yet the Lord is with us just as the Lord was with them. He cries out to us also, “Take heart, it is I, have no fear.”

It turns out that one of the disciples, who was known in the gospels to be rather impulsive in some of his actions, responds impulsively but with great faith in the Lord. “Lord if it is you, bid me to come to you on the water?” The Lord did not even hesitate for a moment. He replied “Come.” Peter responded to this right away and he climbed out of the boat and walked upon the sea. He walked to the Lord on the water! As long as his eyes were fixed on the Lord, he was able to do a great things. He was doing what the Lord Himself did, with His help. But like all of us mere humans, he allowed his eyes to drift away from the Lord. He began to think rationally once more. He heard the swirling winds and remembered that he was walking on the water, which defies all understanding. Immediately, the one called “the rock”, began to sink like a stone.

In this moment he did what any of us would have done. He cried out with his whole heart “Lord save me!” This is one of our common phrases in Orthodox prayer life. “Lord help me! Lord save me!” In that very moment Peter was calling upon the name of the Lord with a singular focus, like his very life depended on it (and it did). My brothers and sisters, this is the type of focus and energy we should bring to our prayers. One of our people sent me a wonderful quote by St. Joseph the Hesychast this week. In it he says “You must keep crying out like a lunatic, “Save me, my dear Jesus!” These are the words of a man who lived and breathed the struggle for prayer for much of his life. As our Lord quickly reached out His hand to save Peter, we are assured that the Lord will also reach out to us to help us. Of course we should also do our part not to fall into sins carelessly or willingly. It is counterproductive to both fly towards the net of sin and then cry out to be freed from the net. We are required to make an effort with our whole being, rather than to be “lukewarm” as our Lord has said. Perhaps it will not be a perfect effort and yet the Lord can and will bless our imperfect efforts and He will, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, magnify the work we have undertaken. He wants this work to be successful in Him. He wants us to really grow to know Him intimately.

Sometimes in our life we feel like we are drowning. Drowning in trials, drowning in sins, drowning in temptations, drowning in negative emotions, drowning in our perceived failures. When in our life we feel that we are drowning like Peter and the waters have risen all around us and begun to overtake us and to cover us completely, why do we become overwhelmed by fear? Do we not call God “our Father”? We are assured that God is there with us, in the very midst of our storms. In the worst possible place and situation that we can think of, God has not left us. He is the Lord over all of creation. He is the lover of mankind. He is indeed the One who saves and that there is no other. We often feel like God is absent and that is also a sign that we have been negligent in our prayers. Negligent to grow in faith. We aren’t going to God daily or diligently or with heartfelt prayers, but perhaps we are approaching God ritualistically and with coldness. So as we begin to pray in a more concerted and heartfelt way, we also feel God’s presence in a different way.

St. Theophan the recluse writes that we should bring God into our mind often during the day. He says “Why is it, you ask, that one can pray for so many years with a prayer book, and still not have prayer in his heart? I think the reason is that people only spend a little time lifting themselves up to God when they complete their prayer rule, and in other times, they do not remember God.” “…during the course of the day, cry out to God more often, even if only with a few words, according to need and the work of the day. Beginning anything, for example, say ‘Bless, O Lord!’ When you finish something, say, ‘Glory to Thee, O Lord’ … If passions arise, say, ‘Save me, O Lord, I am perishing.’ If the darkness of disturbing thoughts comes up, cry out: ‘Lead my soul out of prison.’… Do this in every circumstance, or simply say often, ‘Lord, have mercy’, ‘Most Holy Theotokos save us”…. Say such prayers as often as possible, always making the effort for them come from your heart, as if squeezed out of it. When we do this, we will frequently ascend to God in our hearts, making frequent petitions and prayers. Such increased frequency will bring about the habit of mental conversation with God.” — St. Theophan the Recluse, On prayer, Homily 2

The Lord does not desire that we drown in the trials of this world or of ourselves. May we climb this mountain of prayer together with the help of God. AMEN.

Source: Sermons