"It is I; do not be afraid": consolation for the natural Christian state of persecution

"Lord, save me!” is the cry of the Christian who has stepped out in Faith as commanded by Christ but who upon encountering difficulty is afraid to continue the journey. This is the cry of Peter, who is sinking and left, as he thinks, to his own resources in the danger of the sea. But he is told to use a different standard, that of the Faith which in the human weakness we know as fear, he has momentarily forgotten. The command of the Lord, "It is I, do not be afraid", to Peter and to all of us is to recover ourselves, by the composure of Faith, thereby returning to the serenity of trust amid the violence of the world. This is the natural state of the supernatural Christian, that of persecution and sometimes of martyrdom, which we are in constant danger of forgetting and with it the Faith by which we are saved. And there is also the loving remonstrance as He pulls us up, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”