HOMILY ON THE 19TH SUNDAY OF YEAR A

READINGS

1. Kings19:9-13

2.Rom 9:1-5

3.Mt 14:22-33

THEME: Revelation of God and the revelation of Jesus Christ.

From the readings we can ask ourselves to day that does the Lord Jesus ever seem distant when trials and temptation comes? we are reminded of the new experiences on our way to follow Christ. In following Christ we do experience some setbacks, we tend to fear and dispair to follow him completely. Christ calls each one of us in a very special way to follow him. We are called uniquely to follow him. For example, some of us have been called to live a call of marriage, a call to be priests, brothers, sisters etc in accomplishing and realizing our vocations to follow Christ we find ourselves encountering hardships in following Christ.

In the second part of the gospel ( vv 28-33) we are told of the strange quest of Peter. The message is clear. He receives from Jesus the power of controlling waves often when encountering difficulties and the power of evil. The disciples feel lost because they realize that they are fighting superior forces. Mathew is telling us that the disciple should never be afraid as if he were relying on his own strength alone. Have we ever come across Christian communities going along well like Peter on the water, and then when difficulties and contrary arise, thus their faith begin to waver, did we too start on our work  on the water after baptism, and after a while, forget all about Jesus, and begin to think that we could make it on our own and only felt the need for the risen Lord when we realized that we were sinking once more into our evil habits??

When we encounter challenges in our vocation do we call on the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ for help? The disciples after experiencing troubles, they called on Lord Jesus for intervention and he heard their cry, after seeing him they heard the reassuring voice from Jesus Christ. What about our selves, do we hear the reassuring voice from our Lord Jesus Christ??? the answer is yes we hear it. Through prayer, daily mass, scripture, meditations and the sacraments, all of these are possible through vigilance and perseverance

Facing fear and failure with faith in God's help: We learn from Peter's failures and success. Example we see peter's impulse tendency to act/speak quickly without thinking through what he was about to do.  Peter failed and came to grief as the result of his impulse response to challenging circumstances, i.e cutting off the ear of a servant who came to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethseman or Peter promising Jesus that he would never deny him shortly before his betrayal at the high priest's courtyard. Thus in Peter's moment of fear and failure, he fortunately did not give into dispair or hopelessness. When faith began to sink Peter returned to Jesus hands. Peter lost direction because he shifted his attention on storms and water waves instead of focusing his attention to Jesus Christ the Savior. His failures made him draw closer to his Lord and love him more humbly and deeply.

Question to ponder: do you recognize the lord's presence when  you meet adversity and troubles and you cling to him  as Peter did in his trials?Our Lord Jesus Christ assures us that we do not need to give into fear and dispair when troubles threaten us.

Let's understand this. what is the meaning of the boat in the readings?the boat carrying the disciples in our own days can be referred as the church of Christ shaking amid the storms of temptations( Modernization against the Church) while the adverse wind rages on.That's to say its enemy the devil strives to keep the wind from calming down. For although the boat is thrown into disorder, it's still a boat. Let's stay inside the boat and call upon God.  If children are not given good formation in the family, the family becomes a boat shaken by storms and waves. 

There is a story of one man who asked a fisherman that by going to the sea for fishing is he not afraid of sinking into the see's deep? he went on telling the fisherman that his uncle, father, brother all sunk into the see's deep because of fishing.  The fisherman's response was that " many people die at beds, yet today no body has ever stopped laying at bed. There somethings we learn in life when we are calm, and there somethings we learn in life when we encounter storms/difficulties.

We are invited to be strong in faith.We should trust with our faith however how little it will be. Faith in our life is the key to success. The true and perfect faith demands obedience to our Lord God.( Heb 13:6)

There is a story of a certain Christians faithful who begged  their pastor to pray and have special intention for rain as it took them long period without rain, thus the intentions were to be done the following sunday, coming that sunday whereby the intentions were to be said, the christians did not hear the pastor asking and praying for rainfall!!! when the pastor was asked why he did not pray for rainfall as they agreed the last sunday, the pastor's response was that " I could not pray for rain to fall due to fact that no one among you has even come with umbrella to protect against rain. Faith should be compatible with our actions. Let's think positively and have a big picture of what God wants  to communicate to us in relation of what we undergo in life more especially in the area of life challenges.

Smooth roads never make a good drivers, smooth sea never make a good sailors,clear skies never make good pilots, problem free life never makes a strong and good person. Be strong enough to accept the challenges of life, don't aks life why me? instead say try me?

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