WALKING ON WATERS

The language of the Gospel is not our language. Every time we read it as if the people of two thousand years ago thought, expressed themselves or wrote like us, we make a mistake. Their way of telling was probably that of the popular storytellers or of the popular theatre of their time

In those days, few people knew how to read. What is reported in the gospels was first related, played and maybe mimed in small groups and in the presence of various crowds, giving rise to enthusiasm and admiration, and surely controversy and debate also.  It was a little like the television of the times, the improvised speech or show in a back alley, in the shade of a tree or on the porch of an inn.

For many, Jesus was the unbeatable hero of the hour. His many admirers did not get tired of relating his story. Everyone would insert in it some elements that he wanted, and surely would, in passing, add something more for the greatest joy of the audience.

The important thing was to make known that man who had changed their lives. A man who had simply put an end to superstitions, to fears, to the bottomless gulf which kept ordinary people very far from all that was called God, far from mercy, far from his heart.

A man who had taken pleasure in abolishing many taboos, prejudices rooted in the sacred, in bringing down the thick walls which separated genders, races, classes, nations, peoples, religions.

A man who had taken pleasure in unmasking the idolatry of the oppressors of all sorts, and the hypocrisy of those who were thought of being saints while their religious demands were only excuses for misleading the weak.   

A man who knew that that would cost him his life and who never stepped back in the face of death. A man off measure, an amazing and marvelous being.

A man who inspired courage, boldness, dignity, who restored confidence in humanity, restored hope and a liking for life, who showed that things could be changed and not suffered anymore, that nothing was immutable, that nothing was classified, that nothing was definitive, fixed in advance and forever.  

To describe that man, there were never too strong expressions nor images. Nothing too beautiful, nothing too surprising. 

And so, useless to put oneself out to know how Jesus can be born of a virgin or rise from the dead, to know if Jesus really walked on the waters, multiplied the loaves, changed water into wine, gave back sight to a man blind from birth, to know if he is really living in the bread and the wine of the eucharistic sharing or that he was exalted at the right hand of God. Roughly, those expressions mean the same thing: « All that Jesus was surpasses the cross, the tomb, death. Death did not see the end of Jesus. He is really alive. He is always actual and more powerful than ever! »

«The proof that he did not leave and that he is always acting is that us, we are there. With him, we have said no to death. Death is not the master of our lives anymore.  Our only Master, it is him, the Living. Because we have taken up his project so that it goes on, maybe we will be killed as he was himself killed. Yet, we will not go back to our sepulchers, our fears, our injustices, our slaveries. « If we have died with him, we shall also live with him! »  (2 Timothy 2 : 11-12).

 In the footsteps of those first witnesses of Jesus, Christians of all ages whose faith plunges deep roots in the same waters were able and can still proclaim today that it is thanks to the support that they bring to one another, in their solidarity, in their fraternal love and their commitment as a group that they draw a freedom, a strength and a happiness that they would not have known otherwise.  

In turn, they can relate the following:

«It is here, in what we live together, that we feel that Jesus has knocked down the wall of death, that he is alive, that we hear him talking to us and that we feel his own respiration, his breath. »

 « He is the one also who, through us, keeps on illuminating, forgiving, reassuring, healing, liberating, bringing back to life what is dead».

«Through him, we have really seen God, since no one can resemble God as much as that man. Through him, we have known also all the greatness and all the profoundness of the human being, since no one was more human than he was. And then, we have finally understood that with God nothing more is impossible».  

«That is why, we believe and affirm that an “other” world is possible. Yes, we believe that from our powerlessness itself, from our nothingness, we can accomplish marvels.  We believe that our hearts of stone are capable of melting into hearts of flesh and that we can recreate that world without spreading death».  

«We believe in the power of love. We know that love has its own limitless capacities for audaciousness, creativity, intelligence, knowledge, freedom, self surpassing and humanity». 

«From our internal depths will spring unknown strengths and from our rocks rivers of life. Our burnt lands, contaminated, torn, made dead because of our weapons, our hates, our thoughtlessness, our lacks of concern, we will change them into green pastures and orchards. We will purify the air of our skies and wash the water of the seas and we will restore life all over the surface of the earth».  

«No, nothing is irreversible! Everything can change. Everything can be transformed. All can be illuminated and recreated. We will still have time to row against the current, but it is life that will have the last word and the whole of humanity will end by “walking on the waters!”                                                                                                           

                                                            Eloy Roy


Translated from the French by Jacques Bourdages