Newton Basumatari csc –
Readings: 1 Kgs 19: 9a, 11-13a; Rom 9: 1-5; Mt 14: 22-23
We are in the nineteenth Sunday in ordinary time. The liturgy of the word invites us to trust God in every moment of our life, especially in the moment of trial and turmoil. Pope Francis, in one of his sermons said, “when we have strong feelings of doubt and fear and we seem to be sinking, in life’s difficult moments where everything becomes dark, we must not be ashamed to cry out like Peter, “Lord save me”. Also, it is a beautiful prayer that we can develop in our life”. God never abandon us; he is everywhere and always with us.
Today we hear in the first reading that God’s presence is manifested not by a strong wind, nor by an earthquake, nor by a fire but rather by a light breeze, a sign of the mildness of the Heart of God. He is in the thread of melodious silence. When we are filled with so many things in our hearts, we find it difficult to find God, but to hear and find him we need to tune our hearts and we need to have faith like Elijah, who was able to tune his heart to listen to God’s voice in the silence.
In the gospel reading, we hear Peter crying aloud to Jesus to save his life. Peter had a strong faith in Jesus but when he doubted, when he took his eyes off Jesus he started sinking. Very often in our life, when we face trial and turmoil, we fail to fix our gaze on God. Let us have our eyes focused on Jesus and cry out to Jesus like Peter to experience salvation.