How strong is your faith? Is it strong enough to enable you to walk on the water? But, even it is not that strong, do you find yourself in increasing and strengthening faith as you encounter God? Let's take a lesson from the readings.
The First Reading (1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a) tells that
Elijah, during persecution, recognized the presence of God in His whisper, and his
faith, which had never been lost, was regained its strengths. Elijah’s life was
threatened as a result of his prophetic work for God, and he fled from the
hands of the persecutors and found a shelter in the cave of Mt. Herob. There,
God challenged Elijah for his faith and found God in His whisper. As a result,
he came out of the hiding cave and moved on to accomplish more for God.
On the other
hand, King Ahab, the seventh king of Israel, “sold” his faith in God for his
pagan wife, Queen Jezebel. Because of this corrupt royal couple, the religion
of Israel had its soul in God of Israel, Yahweh, but turned into worshiping
Baal, pagan deity of Jezebel. In response to this, God chose Elijah to step up
against this paganization, and Elijah fought against the Israel’s Baal worship
through his powerful prophecies, resulting in 350 Baal priests’ execution at
Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18:16-40). But, this made Jezebel angry and her anger sent army
to capture Elijah. So, he fled for safety and found a shelter in the cave in
Mt. Herob, where Moses encountered God in the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-12) and received
the Law (Deuteronomy 4:9-5:21 cf. Exodus 19 – 20). God was always with Elijah
and challenged him in his hiding in the cave, asking, “Why are you here, Elijah? (I Kings 19:9b, 13b), and Elijah
answered:
I
have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have
forsaken your covenant. They have destroyed your altars and murdered your
prophets by the sword. I alone remain, and they seek to take my life. 1 Kings 19:10, 14
Just as Moses did not see but heard God’s small
voice at Mt. Herob in front of the burning bush, Elijah recognized the presence
of God by him in His whisper. Just as Moses overcame his fear of Egypt upon
listening to God in His small voice by the burning bush and return to Egypt to
deliver the Israelites from there on God’s behalf, Elijah, upon listening to
God, came out of the cave, moved on, and found Elisha as his collaborator and
later as his successor (1 Kings 19:19). God’s small voice strengthened the
faith of Moses and the faith of Elijah, moving them out of their hiding in fear
to do more works for God, in spite of the great risks of persecution.
In the Second Reading (Romans 9:1-5), Paul echoes
what Elijah lamented about the faith of the Israelites in 1 Kings 19:10, 14.
Just as Elijah decried how the Israelites abandoned their faith in Yahweh the
Elohim, Paul decried how his fellow country men rejected Jesus Christ as the
Messiah, though he is also their fellow country man. It really hurts Paul, who
was Jew, to have found his fellow Jews not to believe Jesus Christ as the
Messiah to fulfill all the covenants that Yahweh had made with the Israelites
throughout the time of the Old Testament. So, Paul indicates that now the
benefits of salvation through the fulfillment of all the Old Testament
covenants, the Christ, are now extended to the Gentiles. So, here we are!
Though we are not born as Jews, we have been adopted by Yahewh (Galatians 4:4–5)
and Paul actually has thought this was predestined (Ephesians 1:5).
Not recognizing God in Christ, the Son, among the
Israelits is what Paul decried for.
Then, the Gospel Reading (Matthew 14:22-33) reflects
the disciples’ inabilities to recognize their Lord, Jesus, in the stormy sea of
Galilee.
Though Jesus needed to grieve over the death of his
cousin, John the Baptist, the crowds kept chasing him. So out of his
compassion, Jesus took care of their needs ahead of his own. This includes the
miraculous feeding the great multitudes more than 5,000 out of five loaves of
bread and two fish, as reflected in the Gospel Reading for the 18th
Sunday (Matthew 14:13-21). Upon feeding them and completely taking care of the
needs of the crowds, Jesus sent them back. And, he finally found a time to
pray. In the meantime, he sent his disciples to go ahead of him through the Sea
of Galilee. It was like Jesus telling the disciples, “Hey guys, you know I did
not get a chance to pray because I got so busy taking care of the crowds. And,
thanks for helping me to feed them. Now, I’ve got to pray and you guys can go
ahead. And I will catch up with you soon”. So, while Jesus was praying alone,
the disciples started sailing across the Sea of Galilee. Then, sailing was
challenged by storm, with choppy water and strong winds. It sure was not easy
to sail. But, this time, the storm was not what they were afraid of (cf.
Matthew 8:23-27) but the object of their fear this time was a man walking on
the water, coming toward them, in the storm. Unbeknownst to them, the man
walking on the water, was Jesus. But, they were unable to recognize him. They
thought he was a ghost or something (v. 26). In response, Jesus said, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid”(v.27).
Well, Peter did not seem to believe Jesus and had to test him by asking, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to
you on the water”(v.28). So, Jesus invited Peter to come towards him on the
water, and surprisingly, Peter was able to walk on the water – until hit by
strong wind and his attention shifted from Jesus on the water to the storm. At
that moment of the shift of attention, fear overwhelmed him and he lost his
ability to walk on the water and began sinking and cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!”(v. 30). Then Jesus
rebuked Peter’s weak faith, “O you of
little faith, why did you doubt?”(v.31, cf. 8:26) but rescued him. And this
resulted in the disciples recognizing Jesus as “truly the Son of God”(v.33).
The weak faith of the disciples prevented them from
recognizing Jesus, walking on the choppy water. Peter’s little faith was easily
swayed by the winds and allowed fear to dominate. The Israelites of Paul’s
contemporary were unable to recognize Jesus as Christ the Messiah. But, Elijah
strengthened his faith as a result of recognizing God’s presence, speaking to
him in whisper, similar to how Moses’ faith was strengthened by God’s small
voice by the burning bush.
Based on the above readings for the 19th
Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), we can challenge ourselves, how we recognize God’s
presence, especially amidst our distress. Does the storm of our life make it
too nosy for us to recognize God’s whisper or small voice? Does the storm of our life puts us in fear,
thus, losing our focus on God?
Our priority in life is God. Otherwise, why we are
Christians? God the Father has sent His only begotten Son, as Jesus, in the
human flesh, to draw us closer to Him. Our pathway to the Father was through
Jesus, the Christ (John 14:6; Ephesians 2:18). But, Satan will continue to send
noises and storms to distract our attention from God in Christ. So, how can we
fight this and keep our eyes on Christ all the time? Are we ready to be trained
for navigating the stormy sea with the most trusted compass in us: faith in
Christ?
Fixing our eyes on Christ, keeping Christ as the
center of our life, means to keep our faith steadfast and being able to
recognize God in all situations. Now, where do you find God to strengthen your
faith? You are responsible for this question for the sake of your faith.
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