May God, through this Sunday's Eucharistic celebration, bestow firmness to our wavering faith and make us realise his presence in the trying and fearful moments of our lives.
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(1 Kings 19,9a.1l-13a; Romans 9,1-5; Matt 14,22-33: 19th Sunday of the Year, August 9, 2020)
On this Sunday, the liturgy presents us with a very significant Gospel episode: Jesus walking on the sea and Peter who wants to meet him in a similar way. The first reading tells us of another divine manifestation offered to the prophet Elijah. The second reading has no direct relationship with these texts: it expresses Paul's pain for the unbelief of his blood brothers, the Jews.
The first reading presents us with a theophany, that is, a manifestation of God. Elijah, who is in a moment of great difficulty and danger, because Queen Jezebel wants to kill him, takes refuge in the desert and reaches the mount of the Lord, the Horeb; enters a cave to spend the night there. The Lord invites him to await his manifestation: Get out [of the cave] and stop on the mountain in the presence of the Lord. Then the Lord passes, but in a very different way from his great manifestation on Mount Sinai, in front of all the people. There he manifested himself as an impetuous, tremendous wind, with an impressive storm, making the whole mountain tremble. Thus, he revealed his power and filled the people with fear. Fear of God is something positive, because it preserves us from sin: whoever has the fear of God does not dare to do things that will offend him. Even in the case of Elijah there was a strong and impetuous wind that can smash the mountains and break the rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was fire, but the Lord was not here either. So in this episode, there is nothing of the manifestation of the Lord on Sinai. In the end there was the murmur of a light wind, and here the Lord manifested himself. Elijah then covered his face with his cloak and stood at the entrance of the cave to listen to the voice of the Lord. This passage makes us understand that God can manifest himself in very different ways: in an impressive external way, with frightening meteorological phenomena, but also in the depths of the heart, with the murmur of the light wind, of a gentle breeze. Perhaps this latter manifestation is more significant than the other: it indicates that God is truly within all realities and all people; and present in our heart, even if we don't recognise him.
In the Gospel, usually Jesus manifests his divinity with gestures of mercy, generous kindness, welcoming everyone: heals the sick, embraces children, forgives sinners, multiplies loaves for the crowd. But he also manifests himself in other ways. Today's episode, which comes after the multiplication of the loaves, demonstrates that to us as he walks on the sea. After the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus orders the disciples to board the boat and cross the lake. He dismissed the crowd and went up the mountain. Therefore, he does not want to exploit the success of the multiplication of the loaves, and John explains why: the crowd wanted to take him and make him king, but Jesus did not want to be an earthly king; he came to give his life, not to impose his dominion (cf. John 6, 14-15). That was why he went up the mountain to pray. Meanwhile, the boat in which the disciples were, was in difficulty: it was tossed by the waves because of the contrary wind. In the Gospel, Jesus' disciples often found themselves in situations similar to this. Even for us, sometimes, Jesus seems to be far away, almost non-existent, while we have to face many difficulties in life. But it is necessary to have faith, know that he is praying and that he will bring us all the necessary help. In fact, towards the end of the night, Jesus came to the disciples walking on the sea. It was a divine manifestation, a theophany, which revealed the peaceful power of Jesus. He can walk on water as if it were earth. In the Exodus, the Jews crossed the sea, but walking on dry ground; Jesus instead walks on the sea. Obviously, the disciples, seeing him walking on the sea, were upset, they had the impression that he was a ghost and they started shouting in fear. This too is a situation that often occurs in our life as disciples of Jesus. He seems a ghost to us, looks completely different from how we know him, and this arouses fear. Then Jesus reassures the disciples: Courage, it is I, do not be afraid. Peter, who among the apostles appears to be the most enterprising, the one who often takes the initiative, thinks to ask Jesus this question: Lord, if it is you, command that I come to you on the water. Peter, instinctively, always feels like being with Jesus in any situation, he had such deep affection for him that he wanted to accompany him everywhere. Here he asked to be able to accompany him walking on the water. Jesus granted his request: Come! Peter then got off the boat and started walking on the water towards him. This too is a situation in which we Christians can find ourselves. Sometimes we take very generous initiatives, but also a little exaggerated. To help the poor, come to the aid of people, or do something in honour of the Lord, we think we are doing extraordinary things, and Jesus approves them. So we too start walking on the water. But after a while we realise that we are in a strange, unnatural, dangerous situation. So Peter, due to the violence of the wind, became frightened and began to sink. Then he cried out to Jesus, Lord, save me! And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, grabbed him and said to him: Man of little faith, why have you doubted? I told you: Come! So you could walk on the water without fear. But you lacked faith, and then you started to sink. In fact, what keeps you standing is faith. When we take a generous initiative, based on an inspiration received from the Lord, we must have faith and keep this faith in all circumstances, even the strangest and most difficult. In fact, if we keep the faith, we can overcome every difficulty. Already prophet Isaiah said: If you don't believe, you won't have established (Isaiah 7,9); Whoever believes will not waver (Isaiah 28,16). And the moment Jesus gets on the boat, the wind stops. This episode is very significant for us if we are generous Christians. If we are mediocre Christians, we do not take any particular initiative, we are content with a rather selfish life, limited to our interests, and then we are not facing great difficulties, but if we are generous Christians, every now and then we are faced with difficult situations. The Gospel tells us that this is normal. We must, therefore, not give up our initiatives for fear of difficulties we may encounter. We must go on, after praying to the Lord to find out if he approves these initiatives; and we must always keep faith. The Lord will help us: sometimes even miraculously, and always effectively. So we can carry out his work in the world.
In the second reading, Paul speaks of his relatives by flesh, the Jews. He says he feels great pain for them; continuous suffering: I tell the truth in Christ, I don't lie, and my conscience gives me testimony in the Holy Spirit: I have great pain and continuous suffering in my heart”. Where does this pain come from? The Apostle does not explain it here, but from the following we can understand that it is the unbelief of the majority of the Jews. When he dictated the Letter to the Romans, the situation became clear enough: Christians are only a minority among Jews; the majority of the people, led by the Pharisees and the high priests, have rejected Christ, they do not want to believe, because the Christian messages, somehow, reduces the privilege of the chosen people and extends it to the pagans, provided they have faith in Christ. Pagans were welcomed into the Christian Church as if they were Jews. The Jews then opposed this perspective, which deprived them of their privilege, and committed themselves, vigorously, to hindering faith in Christ. In the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul explained that he had to suffer greatly from his compatriots: he received thirty-nine blows, was beaten with rods, and stoned. However, the greater suffering is seeing that his compatriots rejected Christ (cf. 2 Cor 12, 24-25). Instead of saying bad things about them, Paul lists all their privileges: They are Israelites; theirs the adoption, glory, covenants, legislation (giving of the Law), worship, promises, patriarchs; from them (this is the greatest privilege) Christ comes according to the flesh, he who is above all things. God who is over all be blessed forever. Jews have many privileges, but they rejected Christ. Because of this, Paul felt profound pain, so much to say: I would like to be anathema myself, separated from Christ for the benefit of my brothers, my blood relatives in the flesh. The Apostle was ready to face every sacrifice, just to save his brothers, to introduce them into the Church of Christ and offer them redemption through faith in Christ. We can then appreciate this generous attitude of Paul, this truly apostolic heart, which suffers for those people who do not accept faith in Christ. We too should suffer because our present world often refuses to adhere to Christ. In our world, there is a tremendous tendency to reject faith. We speak of secularism, which means the refusal, not only of Christ, but also of God. Man does not want God to be honoured and taken into account in the different kinds of decision that he must take. This should, therefore, arouse in our hearts a profound suffering and desire to pray for the conversion of those who do not believe. Then we will truly be united with the Saviour’s heart. +John I. Okoye
graphic by chukwubike
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