Homily for the Week of August 7, 2011

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a · Rom 9:1-5 · Mt 14:22-23

A good number of us here today know how to swim. Most of us have probably paddled a canoe or rowed a boat. Very likely a lot of us have been water skiing. Not as many have sailed the seas on board a yacht or a cruise ship. Some of us have tried snorkelling and deep sea diving. How many of you have ever tried walking on water? The closest 21st century answer to this question was when a bride told me that she felt like walking on water as she was feeling love, fear and faith as she walked down the aisle on her wedding day.

Water is meant for drinking, washing, cooking, fishing, swimming, diving, skiing and sailing. Water quenches our thirst, sustains life. As Catholics we had water poured over our foreheads at Baptism. But water can also destroy life in equal and frightening measure as in hurricanes and tsunamis. The Sea of Galilee in our last reading was really a small lake. But it was violent. No one could predict the violent storms that broke out unexpectedly. Fishermen were so afraid of the sea that they saw it as the home of violent gods. Our three readings today cause us to ask the question: in whom do we place our loyalty: in God or in ourselves?

In our first reading today we find that Elijah was miserable. He felt himself to be a failure and he wanted to die. But he was ordered to eat, and to journey to Horeb, the Mountain of God. There he was told to stand on the mountain, where the Lord was to pass by. But instead he experiences a great wind; then there was an earthquake and thunder, and then a fire. God was not in them. Instead, God was in the sound of a gentle breeze. God was in a whisper, God was in the sound of silence.

In the Gospel today we find the disciples in the evening in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Because of the topography of the land there, huge windstorms can develop without warning. For the apostles, water still represented a place where demons and evil gods lived. To be caught after nightfall in a boat in a windstorm would have been frightening. They surely thought they might die that very night. It is over these waters that Jesus walks,

Not so for the disciples, who were rowing right into what would turn out to be big wind storm which overturned their small fishing boat. But Jesus came to them, and called out to them; and Peter on impulse walked towards him across the waves. Was he testing Christ or himself? His courage failed in the wind's strength, and in fear he began to sink, and cried out for help. Jesus put out his hand at once, and held him. Then came the silence as the wind dropped, and in the calm the disciples recognized him as Jesus. And it is over these waters, by the power of Jesus, that Peter himself could walk if only for a moment. The boat was a safe haven once Jesus entered it.

Perhaps this gives us a clue as to how God speaks to us, not in a storm or strong wind, but in the sound of silence. God's voice speaks to us in the ordinary events of our lives. Today our need for constant communication can fill our life that we don't have time for silence. We are bored with silence. We need to whip out our cellphones and check our voice mail, text someone or talk. Today’s readings invite us to choose to enter into spaces of silence.

Religiously, spiritually, for most Catholics there has been for centuries a struggle between faith and doubt. That was Peter's problem in reaching out to Jesus by trying to walk on water. Peter began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus. As long as he focused on Jesus, he walked on water. The moment he lost his focus and saw the storm, he began to sink.

That is also our story. Most of us have faith, but we often lose our focus. We see the storms and the wind around us. The wind in our life can be most anything that prevents us from being real. It could be pain: the pain of loneliness, insecurity, envy, not enough money or job. It is easy to over come this pain with homemade remedies or addictions which make matters worse. Just as we go to dentists and doctors to get rid of our pains and to be healed, we Catholics must turn to our faith in Jesus to heal our deepest personal wounds. Daily, however, we need to put into practice the faith that we express here today. The Bible and our Catholic Church tell us that God is with us even in these difficult moments. Like Peter It would be so easy to believe if we could only get rid of the wind.

Our faith does not take away suffering, but it provides us with remedies. If you keep your focus on Jesus and not on your surrounding storms you too can walk on water. There is no struggle God cannot calm. We must find time in each day to be silent with him--a short prayer in the morning, or just the words "thank you" when we remember his goodness--then his voice will be in that stillness and his hand will hold us. We need to appreciate the sound of silence.