Nineteenth Sunday
of Ordinary Time (A) [Mt 14:22-33]
13.08.2023
1. Theme in brief:
Progress from little faith to
greater faith
2. Focus Statement:
We need to make a progress from our
little faith to a deeper faith in order to get sufficient spiritual energy to
battle against the storms of life such as trials, fears, doubts and evil
forces.
3. Explanation of the text
Today’s gospel that narrates the miracle of Jesus walking on water and stilling the storm in the sea is meant to teach the disciples a lesson about the necessity of moving from little or shallow faith to a deeper faith in him. It teaches them that they need to constantly struggle against some great ‘storms’ that batter against their faith in God or Christ, such as trials, fears, doubts and influence of evil forces. These are the tempests or storms that threaten to sink the ‘boat’ of life in the faith-journey of disciples. This passage is rich in symbolic meanings: (1) the wind blowing against their boat (14:24) symbolizes the trials and temptations that the disciples have to struggle against in their faith-journey; (2) their getting terrified when they saw Jesus walking on water, with the thought of seeing a ghost and crying out in fear (14:26), symbolizes the forces of fear overruling their faith in God; (3) Jesus’ rebuke of Peter points at his doubts due to his little faith (24:31); and (4) the roaring sea and the mighty waves symbolize the evil or satanic powers at work in the sea as it was the common worldview of the Jews at the time of Jesus. Here we see Jesus struggling against these evil forces and winning a victory over them by stilling the storm (14:32).
It is significant that Jesus retreats to the mountain “by himself” to pray (14:23) while he sends his disciples out into the raging and roaring sea. In Matthew’s Gospel mountain is a place for encountering God in solitude. This could serve the purpose of giving an example of the need of prayer in the midst of maddening activism, or testing the faith of the disciples when they meet a crisis in his absence.
What terrified the disciples is not the possibility of sinking and dying but the sight of Jesus walking on water whom they thought to be a ghost. Though everybody says what they see is a ghost (14:26), Peter seems to have some faith in Jesus mixed with equal doubt. This is why he says: “If it is you, command me to come to you on water” (14:28). When Jesus commands him to come, he ventures to walk on water towards Jesus (14:29). But his faith is less than what is required for a true disciple. He begins to sink because he "notices the strong wind," gets frightened, and cries out "Lord, save me" (14:30). Jesus chides him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt” (14:31)? This rebuke is intended for all his disciples because they are shown as persons who underestimate Jesus’ power over the forces of nature. Peter represents all the disciples for his impulsive love for the Lord; at the same time for the smallness of his faith weakened by fear and doubt. As long as Peter has faith, he shares Jesus’ power of walking on the water; but the moment he doubts, due to the littleness of his faith, he begins to sink. Then Jesus alone can rescue him.
The disciples never think of the possibility of Jesus knowing their present plight or problems and coming to their rescue by walking on the water and stilling the storm (14:25, 32). Though Peter’s attempt to walk on water is his own idea, Jesus approves it by asking him to come to him on water (14:28-29). Peter should have realized, once Jesus has approved his decision, what he has to do is only to trust in him and put himself into his care. Peter fails to do it, precisely because he forgets about the predominance of Jesus’ almighty power over the storm’s mighty power. He doubts at the very presence of Jesus or his power to rescue him at the time of storm.
The disciples learn some lessons from this event: (1) Their faith always remains vulnerable to storms of life. Only a deeper faith of offering their whole life to God with total trust in him can give them sufficient spiritual energy to face these storms. (2) Jesus has authority not only over sin (because he forgives sins) and sickness (because he heals the sick), but also over the forces of nature. This leads them to make a confession of faith in him that he is truly the Son of God (14:33).
4. Application to life
Our life is a journey, and because of our faith it is a faith-journey or a pilgrimage. In this journey we are often driven by forces more powerful than we can control. Faith is not a readymade thing. It has its own ups and downs; it grows and wanes. It is constantly threatened by ‘storms’ of life. Today’s gospel text points to the trials, fears, doubts and evil forces that blow against our faith. They are like the storms that threaten to sink our faith-life’s boat.
Trials of faith come to us in many ways: when sudden calamities and
misfortunes fall on us; when God seems to be simply absent and not caring for
us; when our suffering is not taken away; when we face failures and
disappointments one after another; when God seems to be not listening to our
prayers; etc. Our fears increase day by day as the world advances: fear of
being robbed; of being attacked by an enemy; of remaining unemployed; of losing
a job; of being killed in a bomb blast or accident; of
a sudden transfer to a remote place; of dreadful sicknesses like cancer
and heart attack; of being left alone in old age; of breakage of
love-relationships; of what others may think of us or say to us when we try to
behave differently from others; of our children getting into deviant or
criminal behaviour; of natural or man-made calamities
(like accidents, floods, earthquakes, cyclones); of the unknown future; of
untimely or unprepared death…. The list goes on ……… These fears, whether
imaginary/ unrealistic or realistic, seem to become our masters controlling and
driving us to wrong directions.
Sometimes doubts about our faith also haunt us. We doubt whether all our efforts will be fruitful; whether our plans will succeed; whether there is a God who allows the just to suffer; why does he permit suffering; why can’t he control it with his almighty powers; why does he allow natural calamities to fall on us when we do his work; why there is so much evil in the world….? Besides, there are so many evil forces operative in the world such as corruption, unjust structures of society, crimes against humanity, terrorism, wars, riots, substance abuses, ruthless exploitation of natural resources leading to eco-injustice, etc. When we become victims of these evil forces, our faith is severely tested. There are evil forces in our basic (human) nature also which try to work against our faith such as anger, greed, lust, pride, sloth, envy and gluttony.
When trials, fears (whether real or imaginary), doubts and evil forces take control of us and rule over our minds, they enslave us. Instead of the Lord directing our lives, these four ‘storms’ become an independent force driving us where we may not like to go. They become our worst masters and control or drive us to wrong directions such as depression, disappointment, meaninglessness, emptiness, etc. Faith involves a constant struggle against all these forces. As long as our faith remains strong we can walk on water like Peter and face any storm. As soon as our faith becomes weak, we will begin to doubt whether the Lord will hold or not, though he says, “Come!” That is the time we begin to sink.
Faith is a total surrender of our life into the hands of the Lord, trusting his power. Our faith has to grow from doubting the presence of the Lord in trials to a total surrender to him. Jesus invites us to grow from our little and doubtful state of faith to one of confession and surrender. We lose trust in the power and goodness of the Lord when we face the darkness. We need deep faith to recognise the voice of the Lord who invites us to ‘come’ to him with his outstretched arms. Sometimes he invites us to venture into an unknown journey. When we doubt about the Lord’s trustworthiness, we may stumble like Peter. The Lord invites us to abandon ourselves into his arms just like a child.
We have to believe in the Lord’s power to calm the tempests of our life and cry to him, “Lord, save me” (14: 30)! When Peter saw the power of the mighty wind, he failed to see Jesus and trust in his superior power. Our faith remains strong as long as we fix your eyes firmly on Jesus. We need to admit that we are people of little faith like Peter (14:31), because when we see the strength of the storm we forget the power of the Lord over them. Thus we sink to the bottom of our trust. We have to grow from this little faith to a deeper faith of surrender of our whole life into the Lord’s hands. An experience of calmness after going through tempests leads us to confession and adoration of the Lord as our only Saviour (14:33).
We can distinguish between three aspects of faith: (1) faith-observance or faith-practice, (2) faith-knowledge, and (3) faith-surrender. The first one consists of following religious customs, traditions, rituals and practices like attending church on Sundays, receiving sacraments, observing religious feasts, attending novenas, wearing or displaying religious signs and images, keeping fasts, making sign of the cross, saying prayers known to us, etc. The second one consists of acquiring knowledge about our faith which we normally get through catechism (Sunday School) and other religious instructions including those we get during religious conferences, retreats, Sunday sermons or by personal reading. The third one consists of accepting God as the only Lord and Master of life, doing his will and allowing him to take us where he wants and do with us what he wants. This is the faith that leads to surrendering our entire life – all that we are and all that we have – into his hands. This aspect of faith can become very hard at times.
Many of us think that our faith consists of only first two sides. We go through all the religious practices and rituals without allowing our faith to influence our life – our attitudes, behaviour and action. Secondly, we may think we are strong in faith when we know answers to many questions on our religion or from the Bible. But it may remain only as knowledge in our heads or it may be used for religious debate/discourse. This head-level knowledge may not save us when our faith is severely tested due to storms of life mentioned above. Though we need to practice religious customs and rituals, and need to have sufficient knowledge of our faith, these things alone are not sufficient to face the power and strength of the winds that blow against us. Only when we offer our entire lives to God, put him in charge of our lives and permit him to do what he wants with us, we get the power to bear unbearable situations, to do what humanly speaking seems to be impossible, and to accept persons and situations as they are. Let us examine and see whether our faith includes this third and most important aspect. For that, we have to move from mere ‘religiosity’ (that is, limiting our faith only to practice of rituals) to cultivation of a personal spirituality that motivates us to say with an act of total surrender to God: “Do what you want with me Lord; I’m yours”.
5. Response to God's Word
What are the trials, fears, doubts and evil forces that blow against our faith and threaten to sink it? Do we allow these forces to take control of us and rule over our minds or enslave us? When we do not understand God’s ways and do not find solution to our problems, do we surrender our life into the hands of the Lord, trusting in his power? Do we make efforts to deepen our faith by going beyond ritual practices? Do we really believe that faith is such a great force that it can ‘move mountains’ and ‘uproot trees’ – that is, motivate us to face mountainous problems and uproot deeply rooted evil habits?
6. A prayer
In full response to your love O Lord, I offer to you whatever I have and I am. Whatever I have is your gift to me, and whatever I am is my gift to you. Therefore, I lovingly and willingly return to you whatever you have given me, without any reserve. Take me where you want to take; give me what you want to give; lead me in your paths. Here am I Lord to do your will. Assure me Lord that I am in your loving care. Amen.
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