Homily for the Week of August 10, 2014

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2014

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

         A good number of you know how to swim.  Most of you have probably paddled a canoe or kyak or rowed a boat.  Some of you have been water skied.  Not as many have sailed the seas on board a yacht or a cruise ship.  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 walked down the aisle on her wedding day. 

         Water like sunshine is one of God's gifts that we either have too much of or too little of.  Water symbolizes many positive things. It can quench thirst, sustain life, cleanse, even be a means of relaxation or the means of contemplation. As Christians we certainly relate to the water poured over the head of a child being Baptized. Water has such a positive symbolic value that we can forget that water also represents chaos and death. Water is meant for drinking, washing, cooking, fishing, swimming. Water quenches our thirst, sustains life. But water can also destroy life in equal and frightening measure as in hurricanes and tsunamis.

         You often hear in the Bible about the Sea of Galilee. It was really a small freshwater lake about the size of Chazy Lake located northern Palestine and touches Syria.  It was also known for its violent storms. No one could predict the violent storms that broke out unexpectedly. Fishermen were so afraid of the Sea of Galilee that they saw it as the home of violent gods. 

         In the Gospel today we find the disciples in the evening in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. 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.But this night something strange happens.

         As  the disciples were rowing right into what would turn out to be a big wind storm which overturned their small fishing boat they notice someone coming to them walking on the water, They call out to him, and Peter on impulse starts walking towards him across the water.  But because of the strong wind and in fear, he began to sink and cries out for help. This person holds out his hand at once, and holds him. When the wind died down, and in the calm they recognized him as Jesus.

         Our first reading today is about a miserable person named Elijah. Queen Jezebel wanted him dead for critizing her poor leadership.  To save his life he decides to live in a cave.  Elijah wondered why God would not take care of him after he had done all that God wanted him to do. He prays to God. He stands on the mountain, where the Lord was to pass by. He also experiences a great wind; then 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 tiny whispering sound., God was in the sound of silence.

         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 many of us have gotten into the habit of instant communication because of the technology on which we depend. Our need for constant communication can fill our life that we don't have time for silence.  We are bored with silence.. Today’s Bible 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 overcome 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.