“You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Mt. 14,22-33
Rev. Alexander Diaz
One thing that have always impressed me is the friendship between Jesus and his father. That intimate relationship among the two of them and this close relationship is shown in this Sunday’s Gospel.
The Gospel that is a continuation of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes.
He dismisses the crowd satisfied, with their stomach full and also their souls. They did not want to leave him, but He sends them away, not so He could rest, but to be alone with His father, He needs to talk and wants to do it alone.
He goes up the mountain and spends the night there in prayer. What better way to rest than praying and the open dialog with the father, to be more intimate with him.
Many times people confuse loneliness with isolation. The loneliness of so many moments of our lives is not only convenient but necessary. Loneliness keep away our deficiencies and riches and allow us to understand who we really are. In loneliness our souls become naked and we find peace and tranquility, in meditative and peaceful solitude God answers and you can feel him closer and closer.
The answers to my questioning, I have found in the silence and the solitude. This is what the Teacher does this Sunday. There are many people who are not afraid of being alone, but are afraid of the loneliness, they cannot support or tolerate it. It is very hard for them to find themselves in solitude.
The disciples get in the boat, I imagine them, excited and talking about what has happened. They were happy, with the illusion of being part of this great and divine adventure, but when they were far from shore, they find themselves in a storm, being tossed about by the waves and the wind against them.
I think we are all afraid of the storm which brings lighting and thunder and more so, if you are in the middle of a lake or the ocean. It was normal for the disciples to be scared, to be afraid. At daybreak Jesus comes to them walking, it is not normal for a man to walk in the water.
Peter was afraid. He was a daring man, terrified with what was going on around him, yet, even though he was afraid, he dares to ask Jesus to let him go next to Him. He did not say: “Send me to walk in the water”, instead he said, “Lord if it is you, command me to come to you in the water “.
To get strength out of our own fears, to ask the Lord to let us come to Him, we want to be with Him, to go His way, to be next to Him. Jesus asked Peter to come to Him. Peter got out of the boat and began to walk in the water towards Jesus, trusting Him. How many times we have moved thru the turbulent and dangerous waters and only God is the One who will not let us sink in our own fears. Peter started walking in the direction of the one he loved the most.
His distrust was motivated by the strong wind and even though he was walking in the right direction, fear overpowered him and he began to sink. While he was being sustained by his trust in Jesus he was afloat, as soon as he became frightened and lost his faith, he began to sink.
The sinking of our spirits is caused by the weakness of our faith. Faith is intimately united to fidelity and perseverance. True faith is the one that lasts through out the ages, is not the one that is attached to the circumstances of the person. When one believes in God with all his heart, you conserve your faith independently of how good or bad life is or what his personal circumstances are.
We are weak because our faith is weak. The true believer will never sink completely. Peter cried out to Jesus: “Lord, save me”. And in this, Peter leaves a permanent lesson for our own lives: we too, have to ask God in desperation for His salvation.
But he was humble enough to ask for Jesus’ help, and Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, taking him back to the surface. That is the key to keep our faith afloat: beg Jesus to help us. Only by doing so, we will be able to conserve the gift of our faith. And in case we have a crisis, Jesus will stretch out His hand and help us recover our faith. Jesus saves you of dangers by holding on to Him.
Jesus hand is always stretched out to save whoever needs salvation. When we feel less doubtful. All doubts and fears that discourage and dishearten us are caused by our weakened faith. We doubt because we don’t have enough faith that was what happened to the disciples, they shared everything with Jesus and yet, were very fragile and lost their faith in Him at a certain time.
We need to have faith that He is always with us. Trust not only when we have the storm around us, but to know that God is there. He will be there in the storm and in the quiet and calm times, in the light as well as in the darkness. The big problem with men and women of the present time is that they trust more in their own strength, their own resources, than in God and what God does for all of us.
We believe that the goals we have met are our own achievements. We forget that nothing, nothing can be done if God does not do it for us and in us. If we trust more in ourselves and not in God, if we believe more in us than in God, we are in danger of sinking, if we have not already sunk. Be on land or the sea, when it is calm, peaceful or in the storm, we can go in peace and safely, if we have our trust in God.
Do not be afraid of the storms, do not doubt, just have faith, be faithful.
Amen!!
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