NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

19TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A (1Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a; Rom 9:1-5; Math 14:22-33)
Theme: We can be calm and tranquil when we are in the boat of Jesus

Reflections:

- “We are the bread of life for others” and “It is we who have to feed others with the bread of life”: they are the theme of Last Sunday and concluded that we should be ready ‘to become the bread’ for the spiritual nourishment of the people around us by the kind word and merciful deed; Yes, indeed, people do not need and do not expect much from us the material help or some material food; they really seek for a - kind look (eye and thus, keenly observing their actual needs), loving presence (heart burning for them and thus, feeling for their situation and be ready to be with them) and finally (and only as last resort) an extension of the help (the hands moved towards them and thus providing them with what they need if one is able to do it); Thus, people around us expect from us only a kind look and loving presence more than anything else. In this condition of life and in this need of life, we are called to give bread of Life to them or we ourselves become bread for them and it ultimately means, we have to give them life;
- This week, this Sunday, Jesus wants us to be calm and quite amidst the winds and storms of life because we are still in his boat, the church; we need to acknowledge and be conscious of the presence of Jesus with us always, and it is his promise for us: “I will be with you until the end of the time”. We should never forget his ‘hidden’ but certain presence with us and thus we can courageously walk on the sea of dangers with confidence and with trust because Jesus is there in front of us with the extension of his hand calling us ‘Come’. We have to, fixing our eyes only ON HIM, walk towards him and thus He and We can be in the same boat of serenity and tranquility.

First Reading:

- God’s presence is in the silence of the nature:
o God’s presence is experienced not in the great incidents or terrible causalities but in the soft and calm silence:
o This is the experience of the prophet Elijah and we can find an answer even for our trials and for our desire to see God and his face;
o God told Elijah to wait for him because He is passing before him; Suddenly there was first:
 A great and strong wind which can break the mountains and pluck out the trees; Elijah hoped to see God in that wind because he might have thought that God is great and strong like wind so his presence will be surely there in that; but alas! God was not there; and God will not be there in the ‘storm of the winds’;
 Then, there was an earthquake; Elijah in vain search for God and God was not there; and God will not be there in the ‘breaking of the earth’;
 Then, there was a fire; Elijah once again searched for God in his eagerness to find him at least in the fire but God was not there; and God will not be there in the ‘devouring fire’
o There are many disturbances, calamities and imbalances in the nature which was created in ‘Order’ and in ‘systematic unity’; God is not and cannot be the cause for all these because he has created everything by his word and hands and found everything ‘being good’.
o Many time we are tempted to search for God in the unusual happenings of life, or to understand more easily, we expect God to be present in the unwanted circumstances of life, for example, when we are depressed and discouraged, when we have problems and sufferings, when we lose heart in the different trials of life; But one thing is sure, and we can conclude from the experience of Elijah, that God is not present and God is not there in those moments;
o God will be present and God likes to reveal to us his amazing presence when we are ‘calm, quite and with the tranquility’ without being burdened by the preoccupations of many other things; This is the reason why, God who is not found ‘so called strong wind’, ‘so called breaking of the earth’ and ‘so called devouring fire’, which, in fact, are terrible things for the understanding of man, is finally found and made is presence possible, at the end of all these great things, in the small and unnoticeable breeze, in which there is serenity and silence; God likes to be present when everything is calm; therefore,
 It is futile to search for God when we are wavering with the ‘disturbing winds of many faiths and many religions’ which hit us and attack us so much that we try to see the presence of God in them; It is not fault or dubious to search for God in the true religion but once we accept and embrace the ‘True God’ we should not waver or we should not falter and go around other preoccupations such as ‘the false attractions of various faiths’; God does not will to reveal himself in these conditions and in these situations which disturb them so much; He wills that man comes out of this wavering life and firm himself on the true faith and only then he can experience the presence of His God.
 It is not useful to search for God when we are broken by the ‘earthquakes of technologies’ which in fact, break us into two parts; the attractions of the world and the development of the technology which has to help man to realize the true self and true meaning of life is, instead, leading man into the division of life and division of values; the modern man is divided into ‘the man of faith’ on the one hand and ‘the man of materials’ on the other hand; the man of God on the one hand and the man of the world on the other hand; in this way, the modern man is ‘split’ into the ‘two natured man’ between which he is creating an abyss into which often he falls and loses his life; even in these situations God does not want to reveal himself; he wants the man to come out of this ‘double nature’ and embrace completely the ‘desires of the spirit’ and only then man can experience the presence of His God.
 It is not at all meaningful to search for God when we are burnt with the ‘fire of difficulties, sufferings and problems’ which make man to lose confidence and trust in God and finally, make man to go away from God and trust his own self rather than the hand of God; in these fires of life we lose the integrity of the life, we lose the common sense and finally we lose the light of God; man desires to find God in these moments of life which are opposed to the moments of joy and happiness in which man tends to forget God and his presence; God doesn’t like that man wishes to find him only in these situations forgetting his real efficacy in the joyful conditions of life; God wants that man leaves aside all these worries and puts all the burden on the shoulders of God with trust and seek with the serenity of the heart His Face;
o We have to leave aside all these conditions and burdens and keep ourselves in the available for the ‘passing of God in the silence of our life’; certainly there will be the calm and serenity after all these unwanted disturbances and eventualities in life and we have to ‘patiently and with the peace’ wait for those moments and then only we can see the face of God and experience his presence;
- Coming out of the cave for the meeting of the Lord:
o Elijah was hiding in the cave for the fear of life; and we can understand this when we read the preceding the passages; he has escaped from the hands of Jezebel and after a long journey and the miraculous feeding of an angel ‘he came to a cave and spent the night there’ (v.9); this was the condition of the prophet when God wanted to meet him.
o God told him to come out of the cave, out of the resting place, out of comfortable and secured life telling him, “go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by” (v.11);
o Therefore, the first demand that God makes in order to have the revelation of his presence is: ‘to come out of our zone’; it may mean that, we are called to come out of our houses, out of our secure lives, out of our circled life, out of our comfortable zones and for this motive even Jesus invites his followers to leave aside all that they have to gain the eternal life; it also means, that we have to forego all that we have (renounce) and we have to put all our trust in him (taking up the word of the Lord) and thus wait for his presence;
o We can see the face of God only when we - accepting the invitation of God who calls us to – come out of our caves, also coming out of our preoccupations and leaving silence in the hearts;
o And therefore, we experience the presence of God in the ‘coming out of our house/caves’ and in the ‘leaving aside of all the winds of doubts, earthquakes of the falling into the attractions of the world, and fires of problems’ and finally, in the ‘creating of silence and serenity of the heart’.

Gospel:

- The priority of the prayer even after the completion of the work:
o Today’s gospel reading is preceded by the multiplication of the five loaves and two fish which has become nourishment for five thousand men excluding numerous women and children.
o Soon after the miracle which Jesus has accomplished with the will and the for the Glory of God, he has not rested or remained in the praise of the people or for the recognition of his glory by the people but he has set apart to pray;
o He has sent his disciples to go to the other side of the river so that the proclamation of the wonderful deeds of God will be possible also to the other people; he has also dismissed the people to go back to their homes to continue their daily living in the continual praise of the Lord; thus he has created a space to be with his Father alone; the spiritual meaning of the event could be,
 First of all, to leave aside all what one owns (dismissal of his disciples) and
 Also, to leave aside all that is around (dismissal of all the crowds);
 In other words, keeping aside what one has and what one is surrounded by, therefore, what is personal and what is social;
 Only then, the presence of the Lord is possible and will be revealed and realized fully and completely;
o For this reason Jesus has sent all his disciples and dismissed the crowed and thus created ‘the space and the time’ for the Lord, to put it clearly, being exposed and available for the revelation of the Lord; and this is where our prayer helps us to be with the Lord and makes us experience his presence in the silence and solicitude of our life;
o We see Jesus going to pray alone even after the completion of the miracle or wonder; this gives us explanation for what we lack; we not only pray for the good things to happen to us but also we need to give glory and praise to the Lord even after the good things being done and being happened without forgetting that it is He who has fulfilled these ‘goods’ for us; we often forget the presence and effect of Jesus once everything that we want takes place; today Jesus teaches us to be always ‘grateful’ to the merciful deeds of God amidst us;
- Jesus makes the first step: “Early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea”: here we can reflect this phrase in three parts : ‘he came walking toward them – early in the morning – and on the sea’:
o He comes walking toward them: It is Jesus who makes the initiative; it is he who takes the first step to come to meet us; even before we are ready to meet him who comes towards us in order to be with us; that is what we see in today’s gospel; “he came walking toward them” (v.25)
o Early in the morning: when we see the Italian translation we find other phrase used: ‘at the end of the night’ for the English translation of ‘Early in the morning’; though at the first impression both look alike in the meaning we can go deeper in understanding the two phrases:
 At the end of the night: it is only after the ‘night’ that the meeting of Jesus is made possible; for this reason we can also listen to Paul who says that we are no more children of the night; the night is gone and the day has started; therefore, we have to leave aside the works of the night and start the works of the light; we meet Jesus and we can feel his presence in the light and the light is possible only once we dispel the night; Jesus comes walking towards the disciples once the nigh is over and the day is started;
 Early in the morning: the first action, either of Jesus or his disciples, on the starting of the day is ‘mutual meeting’ in which, as we said above, the first step is always Jesus’. It was in the early morning of the first day of the week that Jesus rose up from the dead and appeared to the women;
 Therefore, both ‘end of the night’ or making the night end, and ‘the early morning’ or initiating the first action, make us leave aside the deeds and the powers of the night and to embrace the possibility of the meeting Jesus;
o On the sea:
 In the biblical world the sea (waters of the sea) signify the ‘powers of hell’, the power of the evil and also ‘power of death’;
 Walking on the sea, therefore, signify that Jesus has crushed down these evil powers and walking over them victoriously;
 He is coming towards the disciples walking on the sea ‘as the victorious king of who keeps the kingdom of evil under his feet’ to make the disciples participate in his victory over the evil and keep the ‘ability to win over them’ in their proper hands;
- The invitation of Jesus to be ‘victorious’ with the faith and trust: Come
o After the fearful cry of the disciple as seeing the ghost Jesus assures them that it is He himself and thus not to be afraid: “take heart, it is I; do not be afraid” (v.27);
o Keeping aside the split and contradictory personality of Peter, we see him immediately asking Jesus if it is He, to make him also walk on the water;
o Jesus did not ask him ‘not to take risk since any way he is reaching them’ but he asked to “COME”; it is the invitation of Jesus to Peter, as the Rock who will be given the keys of heaven, and to all other disciples who follow his word; it is an invitation to the disciples to throw all the trust and confidence in him and just walk on the waters;
o Peter did the same thing; on the word of Jesus he, with all the faith in him (most of the time ‘little faith’ as Jesus would remind him little later, “man of little faith why did you doubt?”) started walking on the water and he was able to do it as long as he had the faith in him and his eyes being fixed on him;
o The reality of the temptations and fears will always be there; we need not be preoccupied with this; because we are called to be over these and win over them with the confrontation of faith and trust; but Peter started looking around and lost his ‘look’ on Jesus and feared the winds and storms and immediately ‘the downfall started’ and the ‘drowning into the powers of evil’ started.
- The invitation: COME is always followed by an EXTENDING OF HAND
o Jesus knows the fragility and weakness of his disciples and more over of Peter; and thus he is always ready to extend his hand to save them from the dangers of water; that is the efficacy of the presence of Jesus; in the presence of Jesus and on the word of Jesus we can always put our complete trust; he is certainly there to lead us (bring out) out of the evil powers that press us down; but only when we are ready to ask his help and ready to cry out for salvation with the words that drowning Peter himself has used: ‘Lord, save me!’.
o The hands of Jesus are always ‘being extended’ towards us; it is only our part that we have to, raising our hands, take his hand to be secure and saved; Peter did it and is saved;
- With Jesus everything is peaceful and calm:
o Once Jesus entered into the boat the winds have ceased and everything became calm and serene;
o The presence of Jesus gives us peace and tranquility; he makes us to be silent and calm in the midst of trials and tribulations;
o The boat travels peacefully only because Jesus is there and he moves it towards its final destiny;
- The Church is the Boat of Jesus Christ:
o Once Jesus climbs the boat the wind has stopped; disciples were safe and secure;
o Jesus is always present in the Church and makes his revelation in the silent growth of the Church although the Church is tormented and disturbed by ‘the winds of doubts and wrong interpretations’, ‘the earthquake of division of desires between the world and the faith’, and ‘the fires of problems and temptations’, she can still go ahead with the confidence and trust that Jesus is with her.


Conclusion

- We have to seek for the face of the Lord in the serenity and silence of the heart, because God makes himself known not in the storms of life but in the tranquility of the soul.
- Like Peter we have to thrown all our burdens and difficulties on the word of Jesus and just walk towards him with faith and trust and with the ‘eyes’ fixed on him.
- We have to be always ready to take his extended hand with the cry of salvation: ‘Lord, save me!”.
- If we are in the boat of Jesus, or if we invite and makes Jesus enter into our boat of life, in other words, when we give ‘space and time’ for Jesus to be with us we can be still and calm.
- Let us be, finally, in the boat of the Church in which Christ is always present and in whose presence all the winds of the life are being stopped.
- Therefore, we can be serene and tranquil in the boat of Jesus: we will climb it and remain in it until its destiny to the shore of the eternal joy.