Homily for 13th August 2023

 

My dear brothers and sisters today we celebrate the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. In the first reading taken from the first book of the Kings we have the famous narrative of Elijah meeting God at the Mount of Horeb. A bible passage is understood fully only when we consider the context, and therefore, along with what happens on the mountain, we also need to see what made Elijah go to the mountain in the first place.

During the time of the prophet Elijah, King Ahab ruled over Israel. He had married Jezebel who was a foreigner and also began worshipping Baal, the god of the foreigners. Elijah then spoke to King Ahab the words of Yahweh and he tells him to assemble the whole of Israel along with the 450 prophets of Baal who were loyal to Queen Jezebel at Mount Carmel. Goes without saying, Elijah’s prayers are answered by Yahweh and he triumphs over all the prophets of Baal who are then put to death. Certainly, a time for celebration for Elijah!! However, things change when Queen Jezebel gets to know what happened to the prophets who were loyal to her. She threatens to kill Elijah just like he killed her prophets. Overcome with fear, Elijah flees for his life into the wilderness and eventually reaches Mount Horeb.

As Elijah waited, there was first a powerful wind and then an earthquake and finally, a fire passed over. Big dramatic moments. The kind of ways we might expect how God should speak to us. But God was not in any of these events. After all this, there was a sound of sheer silence and in that silence, Elijah recognized the voice of God and stood before him. God asked Elijah “What are you doing here?” why aren’t you where you’re supposed to be? Elijah tries to make an excuse for abandoning his place, but God ignores his excuse and puts him back to work. Elijah was there because his faith had wavered due to Jezebel’s threat, and he had run from his God-appointed place.

Our lives are nothing but a roller coaster ride filled with ups and downs. We need to therefore listen for the voice of God and quite often it is a small soft voice. And if we are not paying attention to that voice it easily gets drowned out by all the noise of the world around us. Also, we learn that obedience to the voice of God is the most important. Rather than feeling sorry for ourselves when our service does not turn out as expected, God’s voice encourages us to get up and get back into the fight.

In the second reading, we have St. Paul who expresses his sorrow and grief over the people of Israel who are separated from God’s love as they rejected God’s Messiah.  Paul says he is willing to be separated from Jesus if that could somehow accomplish the salvation of Israel. The pain Paul feels for his lost brethren is all the more severe when he considers how God has blessed them with all the privileges of being His special people. God was present among them. They were God’s chosen people. Israel not only gave us the great fathers of the Old Testament, but Jesus Himself came from Israel. Yet Paul emphasizes the reason why Israel seems cast off from God’s goodness and righteousness is that they did not seek it by faith.

In the gospel passage taken from Matthew, we have Jesus asking the disciples to get into the boat and to leave him alone while he dismissed the crowds. While Jesus is alone in prayer, the disciples find themselves in a life-threatening situation. In Matthew’s Gospel, this story reveals who Jesus is. In Biblical literature, the sea is often represented as the abode of demonic forces hostile to God. To have command over the sea is possible only for God. By walking on water, Jesus demonstrates his divine nature and the disciples rightly worship him as the Son of God.

Generally, when we look at this passage the message that is stressed is that we must not lose our focus on Jesus as that is what caused Peter to sink. While that is very true, as I was contemplating this passage I was touched by the words, ‘Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him.’ Beautiful isn’t it? Just think of it, Jesus is not some distant figure far away in the heavens but he is there, present with us in our sufferings and difficulties. In the moments of our life when we are sinking he doesn’t look at us from a distance but he stretches out his hand immediately and holds us. In a very short time into my diaconate ministry in Mumbai, I have met so many people who have shared with me such amazing testimonies of their life and faith where I see these words of the gospel come to life. No doubt the struggle that the people go through is unimaginable but what stands out more is how they do not lose faith. Where it is easy to just give up on God and perhaps even curse God, these people praise God for holding their hand and lifting them in the lowest moments of their life. Have you experienced Jesus reaching out his hand and holding you up in your difficult moments? Do share your testimony in the comments. Just like Elijah faced tough times we too are guaranteed to face tough times for being true to Jesus. I pray for this grace that as we go through the storms of our life we may realize that we are not alone. Jesus is walking with us supporting us and ready to give us a hand the moment we lose balance all we need to do is spend a little more time in silence with Him and hear him in that silence.  May God bless us all.