5 Meanwhile, He, the one great High Priest being above (He who has entered into that within the veil, the people standing without; for Him that priest under the old law, who did this once a year, did signify): He then be ing above, what were the disciples enduring in the ship? For that ship prefigured the Church while He is on high. For if we do not, in the first place, understand this thing which that ship suffered respecting the Church, those incidents were not significant, but simply transient; but if we see the real meaning of those signs expressed in the Church, it is manifest that the actions of Christ are a kind of speeches.
“But when it was late, says he, His disciples went down to the sea; and when they had entered into a ship, they came over the sea to Capernaum.” He declared that as finished quickly, which was done afterwards—“They came over the sea to Capernaum.” He returns to explain how they came; that they passed over by sailing across the lake. And while they were sailing to that place to which He has already said they had come, He explains by recapitulation what befell them. “It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them.”
Rightly he said “dark,” for the light had not come to them. “It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them.” As the end of the world approaches, errors increase, terrors multiply, iniquity increases, infidelity increases; the light, in short, which, by the Evangelist John himself, is fully and clearly shown to be charity, so much so that he says, “Whoso hates his brother is in darkness;” that light, I say, is very often extinguished; this darkness of enmity between brethren increases, daily increases, and Jesus is not yet come.
How does it appear to increase? “Because iniquity will abound, and the love of many will begin to wax cold.” Darkness increases, and Jesus is not yet come. Darkness increasing, love waxing cold, iniquity abounding—these are the waves that agitate the ship; the storms and the winds are the clamors of revilers. Thence love waxes cold; thence the waves do swell, and the ship is tossed.
Source: Tractates on the Gospel of John (New Advent)