19^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: 1Kings 19:4-8, Matthew14:22-33

Stillness

Mass with Apostolic Nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre

A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help.  Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, “Jump in, I can save you.”  The stranded fellow shouted back, “No, it’s OK, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me.”  So the rowboat went on.

Then a motorboat came by. “The fellow in the motorboat shouted, “Jump in, I can save you.”

To this the stranded man said, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.”

So the motorboat went on.

Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, “Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety.”

To this the stranded man again replied, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.”  So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.

Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, “I had faith in you but you didn’t save me, you let me drown. I don’t understand why!”

To this God replied, “I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?”

That poor guy – he kept waiting and hoping and praying for a miracle to happen.  Give him credit for his deep faith but it feels like he was waiting for God to do something miraculous, like what we hear in today’s Gospel – for Jesus to walk on water and save him from drowning in the flood. And yet the answer to his prayers was right there before his eyes.

Confession Time – I had a really hard time with today’s reflection.  Today’s Gospel is a familiar one – Jesus walking on water, calling on Peter to come to Him and then calming the storm.  It’s been a very rough week – and this Gospel story has already appeared twice – Monday and Tuesday (alternate Gospel) – in the daily readings and therefore the topic of my daily reflections.  What more was there to say??  And so I struggled looking for something more, something unusual for today’s homily.  And it just didn’t happen!

It was only yesterday that I realized I was doing the exact same thing as that guy on the roof – looking for something miraculous and yet the answer to my prayers was right there before my eyes.  I wonder how often we experience the same thing.  Looking/waiting for something extraordinary, miraculous even, to solve our predicaments, when the simple answer was right there in front of us all the time.  I wonder how often we look for God in moments of great stress and torment, but we miss His constant presence in the simple ordinary events of our lives!

That is what we hear in today’s first reading from I Kings.  God tells Elijah – go stand on the mountain; I will be passing by.  First there was a strong heavy wind bending trees and crushing rocks – and that wasn’t God.  Then there was an earthquake and that wasn’t God.  And then there was fire and that also was not God!  And then there was the tiniest whisper and that was God!

God is present in all those miraculous moments of our lives.  But He is also there in all those simple ordinary events.  He’s there when the Apostles are battered by the storm and fearful of drowning.  He is there when we are battered by the storms of life, beaten down by fear or lack of hope.  But He is also there in the stillness, when the world goes quiet and still, and we feel all alone and abandoned.  Whether we are sitting on a rooftop in the midst of a flood or sitting on the front porch on a cool quiet evening! He is there in that quiet whisper!  He is there at every moment of our lives if we only take the time and the faith to notice!