Even though I myself am neither a fisherman nor a boat expert, I find it hard to believe that Jesus was really asleep. The wind was fierce, the waves were high, the fishermen’s boat was not all that large and it was being swamped by the waves ...but he was asleep? Was he perhaps baiting the disciples? If so, they took the bait: do you not care? The situation rings a bell with me and perhaps also with others.

To us at times Jesus seems to be asleep, when we feel we are about to drown in our personal or ecclesial storms. God seems to us not to care and we are tempted to panic. The disciples offer us a good lesson: they go to Jesus. They are afraid, even though they and Jesus are literally “in the same boat”. Fear can be a low level of rapport, but it can also be a beginning, just as curiosity was a beginning for Zacchaeus. Still their fear reveals their little faith.

And suddenly it was all over and they were amazed. We may be like the apostles in “crying uncle” in our storms, but, once the storm is passed, are we also amazed? Or do we think we have pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps? The gospel narrative teaches us a twofold lesson: asking for help and also recognizing that it is God’s help, not our own powers, that calms the storm.