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19th Sunday of Ordinary Time A
August 10, 2014
Reading I: I Kings 19:9, 11-13
Responsorial Psalm 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14
Reading II: Romans 9:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33
Reading 1
At the mountain of God, Horeb,
Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.
Then the LORD said to him,
“Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD;
the LORD will be passing by.”
A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains
and crushing rocks before the LORD—
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 in the fire.
After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.
When he heard this,
Elijah hid his face in his cloak
and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Gospel
After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat
and precede him to the other side,
while he dismissed the crowds.
After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
When it was evening he was there alone.
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore,
was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night,
he came toward them walking on the sea.
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.
“It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.
At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Peter said to him in reply,
“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.”
Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.
But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened;
and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter,
and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
After they got into the boat, the wind died down.
Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying,
“Truly, you are the Son of God.”
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081014.cfm
“Why don't you trust me?”
Walking on water is one of 'those things', the stuff of dreams at best, and if we're not careful it may become a conundrum that will distract us from the what the Spirit would make known from this episode. The 'miracle' did not exist in gospel times, not as we understand it with our scientific minds. They knew nothing about 'laws of physics'. They just knew how things worked, and were filled with wonder when something different happened - and they believed the wonderful meant that the finger of God had touched them.
It's also good to remember that they taught with all the aids a good teacher uses, mixing the most serious points with touches of local colour, opposing dramatic moments with incongruities (I'm thinking of the thousand swine leaping into the lake like lemmings), tender encounters followed by bitter confrontations, and so on. Even song and dance, though there are very few traces of these in our written records. The bible throughout tells of dreams, and Luke uses that literary form in his early chapters. It seems not impossible that this episode is actually based on a dream. At least it's an idea we might explore, and readers comments welcome.
The episode has, in fact, all the characteristics of an anxious dream: the contrary wind making the rowers feel they will never get home; the rough seas bringing fear of being swamped; the rare experience for them of being on their own, having left the leader behind; and then the appearance of the prophet, somewhat luminous perhaps in the dark of the storm. Is he actually walking on the waves? Or floating just above them? Peter's frenzied daring: "If it's really you, command me come to you across the water!" "Come!" - without parley, without a pause to see if this were likely true - as in a dream. And Peter stands up and steps out of the boat, placing his foot boldly on the heaving wave. Then the other foot, another step or two, and he begins to go down. In a second he is down to his waist and shouting for help.
The response, a reprimand: "Why did you doubt, you have so little trust." Then they're all on board and the wind drops and all is calm. In John's version they 'woke up' already arrived at the shore. Just as happens in our dreams, or in mine at least.
Might this story of that stormy night have been a recurring dream for Peter?
Over the years the memory of that terrible moment when in panic he denied even knowing Jesus would come back to haunt Peter. He would find himself nightly racked with shame and remorse, for dreams regurgitate our feelings especially of failures, and remake past situations into video's.
We might recall that in pre-modern times a kind of reality was attributed to dreams. Shakespeare used them to great effect. Peter may have incorporated this dream into his teaching about Jesus which in essence was the sharing of his experiences. Listeners may have laughed to have a teacher telling them his dreams, just as we would, but they would listen intently to Peter's account of his guilty feelings, and how Jesus saved him from drowning in guilt.
It is such a crucial issue, the very core of the gospel, that our guilt is healed by love. The final story in John's gospel is about a meeting with the risen Lord by the lake in Galilee. After a meal, Jesus asked Peter twice: Do you love me more than these others do? And then a third time: Peter do you really love me? This is the story of Peter learning to trust the forgiveness that was given him and to accept his rehabilitation.
Gradually, over the years, one comes to accept that the mistakes, the denials and lies spoken under pressure, all the terrible ways we fall below our own ideals are to be seen as human failings. The challenge is to resolve them with love, a positive energy of loving that leaves our broken past behind. From this we may develop a love that is experienced in the courage to trust. We dare to walk upon the water to come to Jesus seen dimly radiant in the storm because he calls us: Come!
*****
The stormy sea represents all life's storms that threaten to swallow us as completely as the sea swallows ships, planes, whole cities on occasion. Jesus did not promise God will stay the force of storms, though in the face of raging destruction it's natural for us to cry out for mercy. He calls for Peter to come across the heaving waters, and then chides him, not for lacking faith - he had shown more than enough, but for lack of trust - that feeling side of believing that takes it out of the theorising mind into the world of risk and confusion.
'Do you trust me?'
We ask it of one another, often in a situation where there has been great hurt and the one who gave offence still wonders if they've really been forgiven. 'Leave it behind,' we say. 'We'll go on together.' Jesus to Peter: 'Do you trust enough to become, yourself, a witness to the Father's will to bring this evolving world of turbulent progress to fulfilment? Will you, my disciple, just get on with it?' His dreams gradually allow the pent up anxious fear and guilt to be released, and he does learn to trust to an extent never thought possible.
*****
The first reading seems intended to alert us to another dimension of the way we go about our mission giving witness to God's saving power. Elijah is one of the greatest figures in the bible, honoured not only by Jews and Christians, but by the Muslims as well. (It's worth reading the whole story in 1 Kings 17 - 20 http://usccb.org/bible/1kings/16, and in Wiki too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah)
Elijah
Elijah spoke up boldly against Ahab's pagan queen Jezebel and her efforts to impose Baal worship among the Israelite people. After a lifetime of fighting on behalf of true religion, he fled south through the desert and came to Mt Horeb, aka Mt Sinai where Moses had his awesome encounters with the Lord. Today's reading takes up at this point. The lesson Elijah had to learn, at the end of all his fighting, was that God was not in the storm, not in the earthquake, not in the wildfire, but only in the gentle breeze. This, I think, is one of the most important pillars of wisdom in the Bible.
There are no answers, no solutions, no end to envy, greed, hatred, revenge, brutality and killing in this world. No one, not even God's Anointed can make peace between tribes, clans or nations at war. We can only sit with the powerless huddled in their bunker, trusting that the One who made this strange evolving mess is present in every heart, if only we can be still and listen deeply. What do we listen to? To the whisper of our conscience when the Spirit makes plain what we should say and do: To speak up for the truth. To act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk trustingly towards our future - no matter what the cost.
This is what peacemakers do. They step out of their shame and guilt the way you step out of dirty torn clothes, and softly, humbly, they speak truth and bring love to where hurt is stirring anger and revenge. They do this not because they stand above such feelings but, having suffered hurt themselves, they have learned to trust in the One who will not turn away from humankind.
Perhaps the most urgent need in our troubled times is to teach young people to listen to the silence within, to resist the persuasive clamour of propaganda, advertising and mass hysteria, thus opposing those who are raising zealots spoiling for a fight. And teach them by example to trust in God's saving power, for nothing is impossible to God.