Miracles
There are two "miracles" written about in our Gospel reading today: The Feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus and Peter walking on the sea.
On their surface, these acts, instigated and completed by Jesus, signify him as the Messiah.
What is truly awe-inspiring is not that someone could walk on the surface of the water without sinking, but his presence among ordinary, insecure, and timid persons could calm their anxieties and cause them to walk where they feared to walk before--in the end, all the way to their own Golgathas.
What is genuinely miraculous is not that a dead body should come to life again, but that through the journey with the crucified one, the disciples were enabled to find hope on the far side of despair, faith that could live with doubt, and the courage to live beyond the sting of death.
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