August 9, 2020

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Amid the Wind and Waves

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

What a dramatic scene St. Matthew recounts for us! The apostles are in a boat that is being tossed about by the wind and waves. Even the experienced fishermen among them were terrified. The ship has become for us, an image of the Church that throughout history has found herself in perilous waters. It is also an image of ourselves. How often our own lives can be unsettling and stormy.  

Into this terrifying scene appears the Lord. He comes toward the boat, toward the Church, toward us, if you will. The apostles thought that the mysterious figure moving toward them was a ghost. Convinced they were about to perish, they cried out in fear. But Jesus speaks immediately. He does not allow the shouting to go on. He cuts them off and in what had to be a very powerful voice, says, “Take heart, it is I. Have no fear!”

They recognize the voice but just to make sure it is Jesus, Peter speaks up: “Lord, if it is you, command that I come to you on the water.” Peter was impulsive by nature. He was ruled more by his heart than his head. Here we see an enthusiastic love but an insufficient faith. Still, Jesus challenges him to come toward him. Peter gets out of the boat. The storm is raging, and we can well imagine the shouting of the other apostles and their attempts to keep Peter in the boat. Jesus could have calmed the storm, but he allows the storm to rage. It is as if he said, “Never mind, the tempest, the wind and waves, Peter, come!”

This is often the Lord’s challenge to us. Disciples must trust precisely when we find ourselves amid life’s storms. We can be as overwhelmed as Peter. Peter’s mistake was that he took his eyes off Christ. St. Teresa of Avila said that the greatest mistake we make in life is when we take our eyes off Christ.

Peter came to know this so powerfully in his life. Peter trusted. He had faith. But he also knew how feeble these were. In his weakness he cried out “Lord, save me! Jesus stretched out his hand to raise him up.

Jesus stretches his hand to raise us up when we feel that we are sinking in perilous waters; when we feel we cannot go on. This is the great truth contained in this Gospel event.

We can be confident of this because the Lord to whom we cry out in our weakness is not phantasm but truly the Son of God. Our prayer today might be:

Lord, you know the winds and waves of my life. Help me keep my eyes fixed on you. Help me to have a lively and literal sense of your reality, your presence, and your goodness. Replace my fears with trust, the moments of despair with hope, my inclinations to rebel with peace and my defeats with the triumph of your grace.