Stepping Out of the Boat
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time — 9 August 2026
For some of us it may have been only a few years ago, and for others many decades, but every single one of us once did something extraordinary for the very first time.
We pulled ourselves up on a piece of furniture, let go, took perhaps two or three steps, and then fell flat on the floor.
What did the adults in the room do? They smiled, cheered and probably told everyone about it. Nobody said, “Look! They’ve fallen over.” The extraordinary thing wasn’t that we fell. The extraordinary thing was that, for the first time, we walked.
I wonder whether sometimes we remember today’s Gospel the wrong way round. We remember Peter becoming frightened. We remember him sinking and Jesus having to reach out to save him. But before any of that happens, Peter does something extraordinary.
He walks on water.
It begins with one word from Jesus: “Come.”
The wind is blowing, the waves are battering the boat, it is dark and the disciples are frightened. The safe thing is to stay in the boat. Peter steps out because Jesus has called him.
Last Sunday, as we began thinking about the future of our Divine Mercy Partnership, I introduced the idea of vision. Vision means having a picture of where we believe God is calling us to go: what kind of Church Christ is calling us to become. The disciples looked at thousands of hungry people and saw an impossible problem. Jesus looked at the same crowd and said, “You give them something to eat.” We reflected on the great need around us, but also on the kind of parishes I believe Christ is calling us to become: parishes which help people encounter Jesus, help families grow in faith, welcome people home and reach those who are searching.
That is the vision.
This week I want to introduce another word: strategy.
It sounds more complicated than it really is. Vision asks, “Where are we trying to go?” Strategy asks, “How are we going to get there?”
If you decide where you want to go on a journey, that is not enough. At some point you have to choose a route and start moving. It is the same with our parishes. We can have a wonderful vision for the future, but if nothing changes in what we actually do, the vision will remain only a picture in our heads.
A vision without a strategy is only a wish.
I am not going to give you today some enormous plan for everything we are going to do over the next few years. We are still working that out. But today’s Gospel does tell us something about the qualities our strategy will need. It will require movement. Sometimes it will require trying something new. Above all, it will require trust in Jesus and keeping our eyes fixed on him.
We know that there is a storm around the Church at the moment. I mentioned some of it last week. Mass attendance has fallen dramatically. Huge numbers of Catholics no longer practise. Many children receive the sacraments and then disappear. There are fewer priests and volunteers. There are financial pressures. Churches are closing. That is the wind and the storm of today’s Gospel.
Matthew tells us that Peter “saw the wind, and he was afraid”. But the wind was already blowing when Peter stepped out of the boat. The storm did not suddenly get worse. What changed was where Peter was looking. At first Peter was looking towards Jesus, and he walked on the water. Then his attention became fixed on the wind and he began to sink.
That is a danger for us too. We have to recognise honestly the problems facing the Church. Pretending they are not there would be foolish. But we cannot allow those problems to decide what we believe is possible. If all we can see is decline, eventually our whole strategy becomes simply managing decline: keep things going, keep everything as it is, hold on for as long as possible. Stay in the boat. But Jesus is still saying, “Come.”
Sometimes following that call means having the courage to step out and try something different. We have already begun doing that in small ways. We have tried Alpha. We have employed Claz as our Mission and Formation Coordinator because we want deliberately to invest in mission and formation. We are changing the way we prepare children and families for the sacraments, asking not simply, “How have we always done this?” but, “How can we actually help people grow in faith?” These are only examples. They are not the whole strategy, and we are still working that out. But they show something of the direction of travel. We cannot expect a different future if we are never willing to do anything differently.
Of course, stepping out involves risk. Peter gets out of the boat and walks, but then he sinks.
Perhaps the most important thing I want us to understand from this Gospel is this: The fact that Peter sank does not mean he should have stayed in the boat.
Imagine if that were the lesson. Peter tried something, it went wrong, therefore he should never have tried. No. Peter was right to step out because Christ had called him.
As we begin putting our vision into practice, not everything we try will work. Some things may work wonderfully and others may not. We will make mistakes. Sometimes we will have to admit that something has not worked, learn from it and try again. That is how every one of us learned to walk. Falling was not proof that we should stop trying. When Peter begins to sink, he cries, “Lord, save me,” and immediately Jesus reaches out his hand.
That is where our confidence has to be. Not ultimately in a strategy, in me, in Claz, or in some perfect parish plan. Our confidence has to be in Christ. We have begun to see the vision. Now we have to work out how we move towards it. And when Christ says, “Come”, we have to be willing to step out of the boat.
Amen.