[45] Then he made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. [46] And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray. [47] When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore. [48] Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. [49] But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. [50] They had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke with them, "Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!" [51] He got into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were (completely) astounded. [52] They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.
(CCC 2602) Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night (Cf. Mk 1:35; 6:46; Lk 5:16). He includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his incarnation, and he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his brethren" experience; he sympathizes with their weaknesses in order to free them (Cf. Heb 2:12, 15; 4:15). It was for this that the Father sent him. His words and works are the visible manifestation of his prayer in secret. (CCC 2603) The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes (Cf. Mt 11:25-27 and Lk 10:21-23). His exclamation, "Yes, Father!" expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's "good pleasure," echoing his mother's Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he will say to the Father in his agony. The whole prayer of Jesus is contained in this loving adherence of his human heart to the mystery of the will of the Father (Cf. Eph 1:9). (CCC 426) "At the heart of catechesis we find, in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son from the Father… who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever" (CT 5). To catechize is "to reveal in the Person of Christ the whole of God's eternal design reaching fulfilment in that Person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ's actions and words and of the signs worked by him" (CT 5). Catechesis aims at putting "people… in communion… with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity" (CT 5).
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