Peter On The Waters

Respondens autem Petrus, dixit: Domine, si tu es, jube me ad te venire super aquas. Respondens autem Petrus dixit, etc. Aliud est sacramentum de Petro per se, et alia figura. Eadem enim res multoties diversis figuris exprimitur. Eamdem ergo personam gerit hic Petrus, quam et navicula superius, personam videlicet laborantis Ecclesiae. Dicit ergo Ecclesia: Si tu es ille verus liberator, sicut revera es, jube me venire ad te, optat enim Ecclesia semper venire ad Dominum: addit super aquas, quasi dicat: Fac me ad exemplum tuum mundi superare pressuras. Optanti venire dicit: Veni, quia semper affert auxilium omni petenti. Et descendens, etc. Qui putat non esse corpus Dominicum verum, quia super aquas incessit, respondeat quomodo ambulaverit Petrus, quem verum hominem esse negare non possunt. Mystice navicula quae superius significabat Ecclesiam, designat humanum auxilium, quia navis est hominis instrumentum ad gentes transfretandas. Descendit Petrus de navicula, cum Ecclesia postposito omni humano auxilio, humiliando se ad Deum solum refugit, et per hoc datur ei calcare tribulationes hujus mundi, ut veniat ad Jesum, id est, sit ei conformis. Videns autem ventum validum, timuit. Ecce Petrus ad litteram ne superbiret, quasi aequalis Domino, immisit ei Dominus ventum, qui eum terreat, et humanam fragilitatem recognoscere faciat. Permittitur timere et mergi, ut gratius sit auxilium post timorem. Sicut etiam permittit Ecclesiam titubare in persecutione, ut ei infirmitatem suam ostendat, et vehementius ipse ab ea invocetur. Cui clamanti, extendit manum auxilii, et de tribulatione increpat dicens: Modicae fidei. Anselmus Laudunensis, Enarrationes In Matthaeum, Caput XIV Source: Migne PL 162.1385a-c

Peter answered, saying, 'Lord, if it is you, order me to come to you on the waters...' 1 'Peter answered, saying..' On the one hand this is a mystery about Peter himself, on the other a figure. For the same thing is expressed many times with varying figures. Therefore here Peter bears the same person as the boat previously, that is, he has the person of the labouring Church. Therefore the Church says: 'If you are the true liberator, as you are true, order me to come to you,' for the Church always desires to come to the Lord. It continues: 'on the waters.' As if he said, 'Make me your example for the overcoming of the pressures of the world.' He says to the one who desires to come, 'Come,' because He always brings help to all those who seek. 'And coming down...' He who thinks the Lord did not have a real body because He walked on the waters, let him say how Peter walked, whom no one denies was a real man. Mystically the boat which previously signified the Church, indicated human assitance, because a boat is an instrument of man for passing over to other people. Peter descends from the boat when the Church sets aside all human help and in humility flees to God alone, and through this it is given to it to walk over the tribulations of this world, that it come to Jesus, that is, that it conform itself to Him. 'But seeing the wind he feared...' Behold Peter, for lest he become proud, as if he were some equal of the Lord, The Lord sends a wind upon him, which troubles him and makes him aware of human fragility. He is permitted to fear and to sink, so that aid shall have more thanks after fear. So the Lord allows the Church to be troubled by persecution, so that He might show its weakness to it, and that it might cry out more loudly because of it. To which one who calls, He extends the hand of help, and concerning tribulation He cries out saying, 'Of little faith.' Anselm of Laon, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 14 1 Mt 14.28