Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1: 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14
Reading 2: Rom 9:1-5
Gospel: Mt 14:22-33
Our first reading from 1st Kings is the story of the prophet Elijah on Mt. Horeb and it is a fascinating story if you see the parallel of chapter 19 of 1st Kings with chapter 19 of the Book of Exodus when the Israelites arrived at Mt. Sinai during the Exodus from Egypt. First of all, we need to recognize that different traditions are responsible for the authorship of both books and in the Exodus tradition, the mountain is known as Sinai; in the Deuteronomistic tradition from which the books of Kings arise, the mountain is known as Horeb. But it is the same mountain.
If you read all of chapter 19 of 1st Kgs you will see that Elijah met God on the same mountain where God met Moses on the exodus from Egypt. Moses’ mission was to establish the covenant between God and the Israelites and to administer the law; Elijah’s mission was to reestablish the covenant and restore the pure faith. The exodus from Egypt took forty years; Elijah’s journey to the mountain took forty days. During the exodus, God cared for the Israelites on their journey sustaining them with food and water. On Elijah’s journey to the mountain, God cared for him in the same manner. Both Moses and Elijah are hidden in recesses in the rock in the presence of God. Both Moses and Elijah appear with Christ at his Transfiguration (Mt 17:1-9). God’s will concerning the anointing of Elisha as prophet to succeed Elijah and Hazael as King of Aram and the saving of 7000 faithful Israelites who have not abandoned God’s commandments is announced to Elijah (1st Kgs 19:15 ff). In the Exodus account, God’s will concerning those commandments is announced to Moses. On the mountain, Elijah encountered strong winds, an earthquake and fire. On the mountain, Moses encountered fire, smoke, thunder and earthquake as well. In the Exodus account, there is hope for the Israelites in the middle of the desert as God has chosen them as His special possession. In the 1st Kings account, there is hope for the Israelites as God will save those who have been faithful through the 7000.
We can probably draw several lessons from this account in 1st Kgs. First of all, God will not abandon us if we remain faithful as Elijah and Moses remined faithful. Second, God is always present to us in the storms of life that we encounter, such as the storms we encounter in our gospel passage this week, or the storms of life that we must deal with daily such as Corona Virus, the hatred and violence that comes from racism, and the sexual exploitation of children. It may be hard to recognize God at these times of our lives. These are the strong winds, the fires and earthquakes of our lives. God is not the cause of the storms in our lives and is, therefore, not in those storms as he was not in the storms encountered by Elijah, but God is always found in a “tiny whispering sound;” the dead silence of our hearts when we direct our thoughts toward him in the midst of those storms.
In our second reading from the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul is expressing his anguish over the rejection of the gospel by the majority of the Jews. He even goes so far as to say he would gladly be cut off from Christ himself if that would mean the salvation of his fellow Jews. That rejection by the Jews was a source of agony for Paul and for the early church – after all, they are the chosen people, theirs was the law and the prophets, the patriarchs, and it was from the Jews that Christ came in the flesh. This short reading could leave us a little despondent wondering: “if the “Chosen People” have rejected Christ, how will they ever be saved?” Well, read on through chapter 11 of Romans and Paul tells us the Jews will be saved the same way we are; through belief in Christ as the Messiah.
Our gospel this week is Matthew’s account of Jesus walking on the water and Peter’s attempt to do the same. Matthew’s account differs from that of Mark, which does not mention Peter or his attempt. But Matthew provides us with a contrast in faith between those who reject Jesus’ message and the disciples who believe the message, but whose faith is still not strong enough. When fear or anxiety set in and faith dwindles, Peter begins to sink. The same is true of us. When we encounter the storms of life that we must deal with, or we suffer a tragic loss, it is easy to feel that God has abandoned us. But we must recognize at those times that we are in the midst of a storm and need to be saved from that turmoil. Just as in the stories of Ex 19 and 1st Kgs 19, God is there in the dead silence of our hearts if we look for him in the midst of the storms.
The “golden thread”? Just like the disciples who were saved from the storm, when we recognize God’s presence and saving power in the storms of our lives, we too can proclaim: “Truly, you are the Son of God” (Mt 14:33). But first, we must hear Jesus’ words, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid” (Mt 14:27). Otherwise, we may hear, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Mt 14:31).
