August 10^th 2014. Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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GOSPEL:                                   Matthew 14:22-33

Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he would send the crowds away. After sending the crowds away he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, while the boat, by now far out on the lake, was battling with a heavy sea, for there was a head-wind. In the fourth watch of the night he went towards them, walking on the lake, and when the disciples saw him walking on the lake they were terrified. ‘It is a ghost’ they said, and cried out in fear. But at once Jesus called out to them, saying, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ lt was Peter who answered. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.’ ‘Come’ said Jesus. Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water, but as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took fright and began to sink. ‘Lord! Save me!’ he cried. Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. ‘Man of little faith,’ he said ‘why did you doubt?’ And as they got into the boat the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down before him and said, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God’.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the first reading Elijah is running away from oppression. When he arrives at Horeb, he is challenged to recognize the presence of God. But he cannot find God  in the frightening things of this world – wind, earthquake and fire. Instead Elijah finds the Lord in a gentle breeze. After all the talking and complaining from Elijah, he discovers the Lord when he (Elijah) is finally silent. The Gospel from Matthew recounts the story of Jesus walking on water during the storm. Peter tries to walk on water as well, but he becomes afraid when he hears the wind and he sinks. All of us have storms in our lives. Like Elijah and Peter, our fear makes us focus on these storms, earthquakes and fires. We approach these problems of our lives in a fearful way, seeking to solve them with our own talents and capacities. But we have no innate capacity to walk on water! It is only when we seek the Lord in the silent breeze, when we have intimacy with the Father, as Jesus had through his constant prayer, only then we discover the true meaning of our existence. This relationship with the Lord drives out fear and we attain the capacity to walk over the things that once made us sink. Elijah discovered the Lord in the invisible, whilst he could not find the Lord in the visible dramatic events of the world. For as long as our focus is on visible things, we will fail to enter into an authentic relationship with the Lord.

Sometimes God creates circumstances that we find uncomfortable, but he does this in order to give us great things that we would not otherwise receive

Sunday’s Gospel recounts the story of Jesus walking on the water. It begins with a curious phrase: “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat . . . ” while he himself went into the hills to pray. Why did Jesus constrain the disciples to get into the boat? There are various aspects to this. First of all, there was something he wanted them to experience. Often God prepares great things for us but we stubbornly resist entering into the situations where we can receive these things. The Lord must create the circumstances that constrain us to experience these things. Another aspect to this Gospel story is the fact that there is a great difference between the disciples and Jesus: he needed to send them apart so that he could have the opportunity to pray.

Sometimes when we are afraid we call on Jesus, but the Jesus we call on is little more than a ghost, a consoling idea that we do not really believe in or commit ourselves to

The disciples find themselves many miles from land in the midst of a great storm. Then they see Jesus coming to them on the waves. They ask themselves, “Is it a ghost?” Often we reduce Jesus to a ghost, to a theory, to a hypothesis that consoles us but that we do not really believe. Jesus replies, “It is me, not a ghost. Do not be afraid!” Jesus commands us to face the fundamental enemy of humanity which is fear. Fear encloses us inside our little boats, and closed in these boats we try to get through the storms of our lives.

We give excessive importance to visible things, to the storms, earthquakes and fires that make us fearful. We must stop focusing on these things and instead listen for God in silence, in the gentle breeze. It is only when we open ourselves to the invisible that we will discover the genuine meaning of things and be finally freed from fear

Peter asks to be allowed to come to Jesus on the water. Jesus tells him to come but Peter is made fearful by the wind and starts to sink. “Save me Lord!” he says. Jesus takes him by the hand and says, “Man of little faith, why did you doubt?” Events of this sort are a call to each of us to make a step forward in the faith. In the first reading, Elijah is running away from a situation of oppression. He walks for forty days and forty nights until he reaches Horeb, the place where Moses encountered God. Elijah is to be the second person to encounter God here, but the challenge is to recognize the Lord when he makes himself present. First there is the whirlwind, then there is the earthquake and finally there is fire. But God is not present in any of them. The Lord shows his presence to Elijah in the gentle breeze. The Hebrew original of this text is difficult to translate well. The word for gentle breeze is really the word, “Shhhh”, which is the word used when we ask for silence. Elijah has been doing a lot of talking and a lot of complaining. The Lord is saying to him, “You must go beyond talking, you must go beyond wind, earthquake and fire.” In the same way Peter walks on the water but is called to go beyond the wind that makes him fearful. Our problem is that the Lord is beyond visible things; he is beyond the things of this world. But we absolutize the fears we have about the things in this world; we give excessive importance to physical, visible things. Until we open ourselves to the invisible, we cannot encounter that which gives genuine meaning to our existence.

Our lives are a biblical storm. Let us stop running from this storm and seek the Lord in silence

The biblical “storm” is present in many aspects of our lives. The flee from reality that Elijah succumbed to is something that is true for many of us. And we need to stop running, see beyond the storm and contemplate the presence of God in silence. Like Elijah, this encounter will strengthen us to face up to reality and complete our mission. Our lives can involve relational storms, economic storms, storms in the workplace. What we need to do in the midst of these storms is to look beyond. None of us will succeed in encountering real life if we cling to much to the little things of life. We must open our hearts to that which is greater. God has a wonderful plan for me. To bring this plan to fruition, he must constrain me to enter into things that I do not like. In this way I learn to be silent before the Lord. Sometimes we are asked to enter into things that are frightening and difficult so that we will experience the power of God, experience his resurrection.

We sink in the water with Peter because our starting point in life is our own capacities. And we have no innate capacity to walk on water! When our starting point of life is rooted in intimacy with the Father, then we are freed from fear and attain the capacity to walk above the things that once made us fearful

Often we allow ourselves to be moved only by storms, earthquakes and fire. In this way we limit our lives to things that ultimately are small, trivial and self-centered. We need to open ourselves to something greater, to a wise plan for us that is hidden in the crosses of our lives, hidden in the storms. There is a man, Christ, who walks on water. Why does he walk on water? Because he comes from that silence that Elijah discovers. Jesus comes from that intimacy with the Father that is demonstrated by his commitment to prayer. Why do I sink in the water whilst Jesus walks on it? Because I begin from myself, my own limited capacities, whilst Jesus takes his point of reference from the Father. When I am confronted by a storm and I try to rely on my own capacities, then the only thing I am sure to do is sink. However, when I confront difficult situations from the standpoint of someone who is intimate with the Father, someone whose life is filled with the silent breeze of the presence of God, these things no longer frighten me. Then I can walk above these things. I can have a freedom from the physical worries of this world and be truly free.