Saint Augustine’s Homily for today’s Gospel

Each one’s heart is a sailing boat [that cannot] be wrecked so long as we fill our minds only with what is good. When you have to listen to abuse, that means you are being buffeted by the wind; when your anger is roused, you are being tossed by the waves. So when the winds blow and the waves mount high, the boat is in danger, your heart is imperiled, your heart is taking a battering. On hearing yourself insulted, you long to retaliate; but the joy of revenge brings with it another kind of misfortune—shipwreck. Why is this? Because Christ is asleep in you. What do I mean? I mean you have forgotten his presence. . . . You have forgotten that when Christ was being crucified he said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do [Lk 23:34]. Christ, the sleeper in your heart, had no desire for vengeance in his. Rouse him, then, call him to mind (to remember him is to recall his words; to remember him is to recall his commands). Then, when he is awake within you, you will ask yourself, “Whatever kind of wretch am I to be thirsting for revenge? Who am I to threaten another? . . . He who said, Give and it shall be given you; forgive and you will be forgiven [Lk 6:37-38], would indeed decline to acknowledge me. So I will curb my anger and restore peace to my heart.”
Now all is calm again. Christ has rebuked the sea. What I have said about anger must be your rule of conduct in every temptation. A temptation arises: it is the wind. It disturbs you: it is the surging of the sea. This is the moment to awaken Christ and let him remind you of those words: Who can this be? Even the winds and the sea obey him. Who is this whom the sea obeys? It is he to whom the sea belongs, for he made it.
St. Augustine, Sermon 63