The first message, in today's gospel story, is that the calming of the sea indicates the true identity of Jesus; he has the power of God himself. He speaks to the sea as if it were a living thing. No wonder that the disciples are filled with awe. Their question contains its own answer: "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" The second message lies in the symbolism underlying the story. It is a story of the early Church where the boat represents a church community. The surrounding sea is the world. Jesus gets into the boat with them. There were other boats too. That is, other church communities. A violent storm arises and waves threaten to swamp the boat and sink it. This is just what was happening to so many small communities surrounded by hostile elements bent on wiping out the Christian faith. Where was Jesus during all this? Asleep! Not in the least worried. The disciples scold him: "Teacher do you not care that we are all going to be drowned?" How often that complaint must have risen from those tiny, battered communities wondering where their Lord was in all their troubles! Jesus wakes up and tells the wind to be still. And calm returns. "Why were you afraid? Do you not yet have faith?" Of course, the real calm is not so much in the sea as in their hearts when they realise that Jesus is not far away, he is not asleep or absent but is with them all the time.