And he said unto them,
Why are you fearful,
O you of little faith?
Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
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Cyril of Alexandria
AD 444
The exclamation “save us” is commendable, since it shows faith. But to say “we are perishing” brings a charge of littleness of faith against those who were in deep distress. They indeed put their hope in Christ who was sailing with them. They were not totally faithless but were at that point “of little faith,” since in their danger they did not take courage from the fact of Christ’s being with them.
Why are you fearful, having me with you? Do you suppose that sleep can take from me the knowledge of your danger, or the power of relieving you? (Haydock)
He commanded the winds. Christ showed himself Lord and Master of the sea and winds. His words in St. Mark (iv. 39,) demonstrate his authority: Rising up he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. (Witham)
As before our Lord restored Peter's mother-in-law on the spot, not only to health, but to her former strength; so here he shows himself supreme Lord of all things, not only by commanding the winds to cease, but, moreover, by commanding a perfect calm to succeed. (St. Chrysostom, hom. xxix.) How many times has he preserved his Catholic Church, when (to all human appearance, and abstracting from his infallible promises) she has been in the most imminent danger of perishing? How many times by a miracle, or interposition of his omnipotence, less sensible indeed, but not less real, has he rescued our souls, on the point...
Non occ.: Chrysostom explains thus, “What manner of man is this?” His sleeping and His appearance showed the man; the sea and the calm pointed out the God.
Or; He sleeps, because by our sloth He is cast asleep in us. This is done that we may hope aid from God in fear of danger; and that hope though late may be confident that it shall escape danger by the might of Christ watching within.
Of this miracle we have a type in Jonah, who while all are in danger is himself unconcerned, sleeps, and is awakened.
But if any shall content that it was the disciples who wondered, we shall answer they are rightly spoken of as ‘the men,’ seeing they had not yet learnt the power of the Saviour. Figuratively; We are all embarked in the vessel of the Holy Church, and voyaging through this stormy world with the Lord. The Lord Himself sleeps a merciful sleep while we suffer, and awaits the repentance of the wicked.
It is not in the presence of the multitudes that he corrects their “little faith.” He calls them apart to correct them. Before the tempest of the waters he stills the tempests in their souls. He admonishes them, “Why are you so fearful, O you who have little faith?” He instructs them concerning how human fear emerges out of weakness of mind, not out of the actual approach of threatening trials. Their awakening him was a sign of their lack of a right understanding of who he was. They knew his power to rebuke when he was awake, but his power to rebuke when asleep they had not yet grasped. Even after so many other miracles their impressions of him were still confused. This is why he remarked that they were still without understanding. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
Therefore neither does He this in the presence of the multitudes, that they might not be condemned for little faith, but He has them apart, and corrects them, and before the tempest of the waters He puts an end to the tempests of their soul, rebuking them, and saying,
Why are you fearful, O you of little faith: instructing them also, that men's fear is wrought not by the approach of the temptations, but by the weakness of their mind.
But should any one say, that it was not fearfulness, or little faith, to come near and awaken Him; I would say this, that that very thing was a special sign of their wanting the right opinion concerning Him. That is, His power to rebuke when awakened they knew, but that He could do so even sleeping, they knew not as yet.
And why at all marvel that it was so now, when even after many other miracles their impressions were still rather imperfect? Wherefore also they are often rebuked; as when He says, Are ye also yet without understanding? Marvel not...
Hom., xxviii: He took His disciples with Him, and in a boat, that they might learn two lessons; first, not to be confounded in dangers, secondly, to think lowly of themselves in honour. That they should not think great things of themselves because He kept them while He sent the rest away, He suffers them tobe tossed by the waves. Where miracles were to be shewn, He suffers the people to be present; where temptations and fears were to be stilled, there He takes with Him only the victors of the world, whom He would prepare for strife.
They had seen others made partakers of Christ’s mercies, but forasmuch as no man has so strong a sense of those things that are done in the person of another as of what is done to himself, it behoved that in their own bodies they should feel Christ’s mercies. Therefore He willed that this tempest should arise, that in their deliverance they might have a more lively sense of His goodness. This tossing of the sea was a type of their future trials of which Pau...
Christ gets into the vessel of his church, always ready to calm the waves of the world. He leads those who believe in him through safe sailing to the heavenly homeland and makes those whom he made to share in his humanity citizens of his land. Christ does not need the vessel, therefore, but the vessel needs Christ. Without the heavenly helmsman the vessel of the church is unable to sail over the sea of the world and, against critical odds, arrive at the heavenly harbor.
Otherwise; The sea is the turmoil of the world; the boat in which Christ isembarked is to be understood the tree of the cross, by the aid of which the faithful having passed the waves of the world, arrive in their heavenly country, as on a safe shore, whither Christ goes with His own; whence He says below, “He that will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” When then Christ was fixed on the cross, agreat commotion was raised, the minds of His disciples being troubled at His passion, and the boat was covered by the waves. For the whole strength of persecution was around the cross of Christ, on which He died; as it is here, "But he was asleep.” His sleep is death. The disciples awaken the Lord, when troubled at His death; they seek His resurrection with earnest prayers, saying, "Save us,” by rising again; “we perish,” by our trouble at Thy death. He rises again, and rebukes the hardness of their hearts, as we read in other places. "He commands the wi...
He did not say, "O ye of no faith," but, "O ye of little faith." The disciples showed their faith when they said, "Lord, save us;" but when they said, "We are perishing," they lacked faith. They ought not to have been afraid, as Jesus was with them in the boat. See how, by chastising them for cowardice, He shows that cowardice itself is a danger. This is why He calms first the turbulence of their souls, and then the storm.
