God is Alive, Cast Away your Fears!
1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33
“The only thing to fear is fear itself,” sets the tone for the message of this Sunday. Today, we are paralyzed by fears at many fronts: the lingering Russian-Ukraine war, the looming economic meltdown, the persistent injustices against the weak, and orchestrated rhetoric of war between Niger Republic and the West. In this atmosphere, we need reassurances that all will be well; we need a voice that says “you’ll weather the storm, because I’ve got your back”. That is exactly what God is doing in our readings today, helping us to find reasons to cast away our fears because God is alive and with us!
Our first reading helps us to grapple with how to recognize the presence of God. From the name of the prophet—Elijah—we have the first criterion for recognizing God—God speaks/talks. Elijah means, literally, “my God is alive”. A more popular translation of Elijah is “My God is Yahweh”: “EL (God)—“I” (my)—“Yah/Jah” (Yahweh). But “Yah” also is the verb “to be” or “to be alive”. When we look at the way God reveals himself to Elijah today, through a gentle voice, it becomes evident that God speaks/talks. It is the speech of God, not the rumbling of nature—wind, earthquake, and fire—that reveals the presence of God. God uses the characteristic of a living being—speech—to show himself to Elijah.
This is not the first time God will speak to Elijah. Since his prophetic call, Elijah was in communication with God. In fact, it was by running errands for God that his live is now hanging on a balance, because Jezebel was after his life—after the contest with the prophets of Baal and of Asherah on mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:19). As a matter of fact, beyond God’s interventions or actions, there is first, the call of God and the mission of God. God called and sent Elijah to confront the prophets of Baal and of Asherah. Today, God comes to the aid of Elijah because of the obstacle confronting him in the discharge of his duties and the carrying out of the mandate of God. This is typically God’s approach to those who do his will—he visits and liberates them. This is also similar to the miracle of today’s gospel.
The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) reveal the Divinity of Jesus through the miracles he performs. Today, our gospel reading depicts Jesus as God not only by his walking on the Sea of Galilee, but also for enabling Peter to do the same. In Jesus, completely human in his appearance to his disciples and the people of his days, we see how the invisible becomes visible through actions. The transcendence in Jesus’ actions draws the human mind to the contemplation of God, who makes himself present through positive and extra-ordinary human actions and activities. Jesus’ walking on the sea reveals his divinity as God, besides his humanity.
It was Jesus who got his disciples into the boat with the instruction to cross to the other side. While they rowed their boat in a violent storm, he came to them walking on the sea. He was never absent from them, but they could not understand that he was with them up until the miracle of walking on the sea and the storm battling against their boat. Besides Jesus’ miracle revealing the power and presence of God, the power and presence of God manifest themselves in human beings as well. Jesus invites Peter to walk on the sea like himself. Peter did, for a brief moment, and began to sink. For a short period of time, Peter too became God’s channel for revealing the presence and power of God. The sinking of Peter, on account of his doubts, was not all negative—Peter remembered the presence of God in Jesus, so he cried out, “Lord, save me!” If Peter failed to mirror the presence and power of God, the perfect presence of God was there—Jesus. Peter’s cry for help shows that faith could make up for human limitations and bring about the intervention of God’s presence: Jesus stretches out his hand to save Peter from sinking and takes him into the boat.
Peter’s and the other disciples’ comfort zone is the boat; therein, they find security; they are conversant with human technological and scientific security and guarantees. God’s security, built on faith in God, is less familiar. In the event of a storm and a ghost, the clash between human science and nature, Peter finds his faith in science threatened. The storm rocking the boat violently needs an alternative security apparatus. Dwelling in the realm of faith and trust in the God of nature and creation, somehow, proves difficult for people. Something in the human persons makes them prefer their own inventions to God’s, even if God’s inventive skills in them help them with their scientific inventions.
The examples of Elijah and Peter characterize our journey of faith. Faced with the extermination order of queen Jezebel, Elijah flees and hides in a cave—fear factor. The God who sent him on mission visits him in the cave, and his ascension in a chariot of fire and whirlwind followed. After all, the fire, earthquake, and wind that preceded God’s visit were not in vain; they were his vehicle to his new destination. How God turns what might appear a misfortune into blessings in disguise! As for the disciples of Jesus, with their confidence in human technologically invented boat rocking violently, Peter risked walking on the sea like Jesus—Lord make me come to you on the water, Peter requested! His experiment did not last long before he began to sink. On our part, we sometimes take a chance on our faith like Peter and realize our weakness in the process—fear factor. For some of us priests and religious, the virginity with which we came to serve God gets badly shaking. For those of us married, our innocence and naivety about marriage sometimes undergo assaults of doubts and fidelity. Those of us who are politicians question ourselves daily about the role of God in politics, whether we can still remain authentic Christians as politicians. For those of us who are Catholics, believing in the Church and her teachings, in the midst of all kinds of scandals assailing the Church, becomes an uphill task. Whatever the case maybe, it is always a blessing, should we remember to call for help as Peter did—“Lord, save me!” Of course, some of us hide away in caves or in our human-made cocoons and fail to hear God calling or visiting. This is the pathetic situation that Paul bemoans today.
Paul, in our second reading, presents a mature way of knowing and acknowledging the presence of God—our conscience and the Holy Spirit: “my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit” (Romans 9:1). Instead of an external gentle voice, strong winds, earthquakes and fire, as steps for Elijah to recognize the presence of God, and the fear of a ghost walking on the sea, for the disciples of Jesus, God leaves his voice encoded on our consciences and his Holy Spirit dwelling in us as prompters to God’s presence. This new approach makes every human being apt to recognizing God and the inescapable presence of God to human beings. Yet, the Jewish people could not recognize God in the person of Jesus Christ because of attachment to old ways and apparatus—the invisibility of God.
The greatest miracles are the Incarnation and the death of God for human salvation. Paul could not fathom the Jewish refusal to accept salvation and justification freely offered in Jesus Christ. Like the way Elijah experienced the presence and visit of God, when the going got tough, God visited humanity in Jesus Christ and brought us free salvation, when we were sinners. This attribute of God as one who is alive and active passes through his communication, through the miracles of our lives. More importantly, our faith and trust in God has to manifest itself, not in our doubts, like Peter’s, but in our confidence and assurance that miracles still do happen, because God is ever present among us, through thick and thin. Fear not, our God is alive!
Assignment for the Week :
Spend some time meditating on how to turn your weaknesses into blessings!