The 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 10, 2014
Click here to listen to this
homily (.mp3 file)
Today’s gospel story of Jesus walking on the storm-tossed waters of the Sea of
Galilee appears in all but one of the four gospels, but Matthew’s is the only
version that puts Peter right at the center of the story. We should be
grateful for that because Peter gives the story a decidedly human dimension.
Peter makes room for us in the story.
If you know the Cathedral, you are aware that this
gospel story was captured in bronze years ago on the west façade of the
Cathedral – on one of the door handles, to be exact. You have to look carefully
but it’s worth the look. Jesus is there pulling the sinking, terrified Peter out
of the water. The idea for that door handle came from the sculptor of
those bronze doors, Ulrich Henn, who told me that he knew people would be coming
to the Cathedral whose faith wasn’t very strong, and he wanted them to know that
Peter’s faith wasn’t always very strong either. He also wanted them to
know that even with little or no faith they were welcome in the Cathedral,
welcome to take that handle, open that door, and come in.
You see why I say that Peter makes room for us in
the story. Peter stands for each of us. We are believers but we sometimes
struggle to believe; we can be strong in faith at one moment, drowning in doubt
the next. The gospel prayer, “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief!” is our
prayer. Faith that knows no struggle or doubt is probably no faith at all.
So this gospel story, like so many, is a kind of
mirror for viewing ourselves, and a source of encouragement – as if to say: if
Peter was nearly swamped in those waves, there’s hope for us – hope that the
Lord will be there reaching out his hand to us as he did to the drowning Peter,
calming our storms, climbing into our boat to sit alongside, gently inviting us
to deeper faith as he says, “Take courage. It is I. Do not be
afraid.”
It’s worth observing that those words, “Do not be
afraid,” are a thread that runs all through Matthew’s Gospel from beginning to
end. Let me remind you. They were the words the angel spoke to the bewildered
Joseph when he found that his beloved Mary was pregnant, they were the calming
words Jesus spoke during the storm at sea, the reassuring words he spoke to
Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Easter words he spoke
to the brave but frightened women at the tomb, and they were his parting words
to the disciples on a hilltop in Galilee: “Do not be afraid.” From beginning to
end, Matthew’s gospel is a lifeline for fearful people trying to hold onto
faith.
But in today’s readings Matthew’s gospel doesn’t
have to carry this message alone. It was also in the reading from the Book of
Kings. Elijah was in the midst of the greatest storm of his stormy career.
He was fleeing for his life from the fury of the bloodthirsty Queen Jezebel,
wondering all the while where the Lord God was. His flight took him all
the way to the very mountain where Moses had met God long years before.
But it was different for Elijah. God didn’t
speak to him as he had to Moses -- in a show of awesome power, in thunder,
earthquake and fire. No, God spoke to Elijah in the tiniest wisp of a
breeze, in a “still, small voice” that caused him to hide his face in his cloak.
And that’s where the Elijah story connects with today’s gospel story. The voice
of Jesus to Peter and the terrified apostles on the storm-tossed Lake of Galilee
–- “Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid” -- was an echo of that “still,
small voice” Elijah once heard. And, like Elijah of old, the troubled apostles
bowed their heads in silent wonder.
My friends, do you sometimes wonder where the Lord
is during your personal struggles? I know I do. Do you question your faith
because of things that are happening or that have happened to you -- things
beyond your control -- a debilitating illness, the death of a loved one, the
unraveling of a relationship, the loss of a job, the direction one of your
children has taken in life? Do you sometimes wonder, too, if God has turned his
back on our world as you look at what is going on in places like Israel and
Gaza, Iraq, the Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan – to say nothing of events
here in our own country, on our borders, in our streets, in the corridors of
power? We all do, I think, and we are in good company. We are.
We are in the company of Elijah, the company of Peter and the apostles on the
stormy sea. Like them, we believe but sometimes we wonder where God is, why God
doesn’t do something.
With the fearful Peter we need to reach out for the
hand of Jesus; with the weary and discouraged Elijah, we need to listen
patiently and intently for that “still, small voice” of God.
Now I know this might sound simplistic. And it
doesn’t mean that we won’t have times of fear, doubt, or deep anxiety; and, with
regard to the world situation, it doesn’t absolve us from exerting every
possible effort -- every ounce of energy we have -- to work for a better, more
just world. But, in the end, with Peter and the apostles on the Sea of
Galilee, we need to scan the night sky for the figure of Jesus who is always
with us in our darkness. And when with Peter we cry out, “Lord, save me!”
his hand will be there to lift us up, his voice to reassure us: “O you of little
faith,” he will say, “why do you doubt? Take courage. It is I. Do not be
afraid!”
Father Michael G. Ryan
