07/08/2011 - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Season - Year A
Reading 1Kg 19,9.11-13 Psalm 84 2Reading Rom 9,1-5 Gospel Mt 14,22-33
Who know what the disciples thought when Jesus made them go on the boat without
him. Why was he to remain on ground? The evangelist leaves us to intentions of the
teacher. He remained behind to send away the crowd who eat enough from the five
loaves, and won't let the disciples to do it.
They would have faced a very strong temptation, and who knows if they would have
passed! They were the ones who distribute the bread of the miracle, but the miracle
was not understood. Everyone has eaten, yes, true, but who understand the meaning?
Who knew that Jesus is the new Moses, who gives the real bread in the desert in
the world, the promised and long awaited Messiah? And those who had understood were
they able to say: "here I am, tell me what I do"? Instead they were all
ready to teach him what to do: they wanted him a King, according to the fashion
of the day. The Evangelist John says it clearly: they came to take him to make him
king. Jesus does not want his followers be tempted by vanity, or ambition, or that
they take the side of people. Because of this, he makes them to leave by boat. The
crowd should not condition them. They must learn to do freely the works of God,
without wanting to be considered big and important. Here they are alone on the lake.
And Jesus? He is alone on the mountain, and there he prays, that is, he listens
to the Father, and offers himself to him. It is he who should say what to do because
the man has to live "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
Jesus hails to declare his obedience to the Father: this is his prayer. He really
wants to be and remain an obedient son.
The disciples have the wind against them, that is, said with a biblical language,
they are dominated by a negative spirit; they are tossed by the wind, not only outwardly
but also from within themselves, the temptation was shaking them and frightening
them like the night in which they are immersed. In fact Jesus is not with them.
And when they see him coming towards them do not recognize him. They think of a
ghost. Just like us, when we are tempted by the evil one: the presence of Jesus
seem to us as an enemy, and we do not know why. He walks on water, like no one had
ever done. It is apparently courageous Peter's question, but just as naive: "If
it's you, bid me come unto you on the water." The wind continues to blow, the
darkness continues to be a threat. The call comes in and Peter moves out of the
boat and puts his feet to walk on the water. The wonder of his and others is great:
he too, can walk where no one has ever walked.
How many times we did things we never dreamed of doing by obeying to Jesus! Obeying
to Jesus we put love in difficult situations, we have forgiven grave sins, we passed
the Word of God to people who have never wanted to know, we have overcome insurmountable
difficulties in order to make a contribution to the kingdom of God
The wind continues to thwart the path of Peter, and he is afraid. He forgets that
he is obeying to Jesus, but he lets fear take over. The water is not solid and he
is sinking. He screams in fear, more than pray, so that Jesus hears him and have
mercy on him and save him. But he does not miss a friendly reproach to the disciple,
now all wet: failed to believe, he doubted his word, and so the fear has prevented
him from continuing to obey and keep walking.
The text ends with the declaration of faith of all the other apostles: "You
are the Son of God"! They realize that Jesus is God, they had become his witnesses.
Jesus did what only God can do, dominate the wind and the sea. He did this in a
way that only they could notice it in the night. He knows that God acts in silence.
He learnt it from the experience of Elijah who on the mountain expected the manifestation
of God through the wind rushing through the earthquake, through the fire, but nothing.
God does not want to impose himself on anyone. He is manifested in the "whisper
of a breeze." Elijah has to understand that God is meek, and respects the smallness
of man. He respects so much that the majority of people do not recognize Jesus as
his Son, and continues to await the coming of a powerful Messiah. St. Paul expresses
his pain for the hardness of his people, and he himself would suffer the curse of
God if all the people accept Jesus as savior. We share the strong desire of St.
Paul for our people, we transform this desire to pray continually, because they
all come to know Jesus, who walks in the night nor of those who waits.