A Reading from St. Ambrose
Bishop and Doctor
The Two Ships

How great were the wonders the Lord worked we can learn from this Gospel reading, wherein he describes the many divine favors He bestowed upon the people, so that the multitudes of men, now stirred up, pressed upon him, to hear Him, rather than to ask Him questions. And they sought to obtain the healing of salvation, not through the grace of humility, but through the violence of their importunity, so that, as the Gospel says, they press upon him, that the desert should not separate the multitudes from the Lord Jesus, nor the Synagogue hold them back, nor reverence for the Divinity keep them at a distance. For this is the way they act who are sick, that when they have a hope of being healed of their infirmities, they are not held back from imploring it by any importunity of time or place or shame: so that the more he heals who treats them, the more importunate they become who suffer. And so because Jesus could not on land be apart from the people, seeing two ships upon the sea He hastens to go into one of them, that which belonged to Peter, so that with the water between them He might be free of the violence of their importunity. For the reverence that was due to a Teacher was far from restraining them. And then from the little ship He begins to speak to men the words of His Teaching. Consider the kindness of our Savior; separated in Body from men, He is united to them in the profit of His teaching. Everywhere He is compassionate, everywhere He helps us. On the land He heals the infirmities of their bodies, by His touch; on the sea He heals the wounds of the soul, by His teaching.