19th.

Sunday in Ordinary Time

August 9th – 10th 2008
Reading 1
1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a

At the mountain of God, Horeb,

Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.
Then the LORD said to him,
“Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD;
the LORD will be passing by.”
A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains
and crushing rocks before the LORD—
but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake—
but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake there was fire—
but the LORD was not in the fire.
After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.
When he heard this,
Elijah hid his face in his cloak
and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14

R. (8) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD — for he proclaims peace.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.

Reading II
Rom 9:1-5

Brothers and sisters:

I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie;
my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit in bearing me witness
that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ
for the sake of my own people,
my kindred according to the flesh.
They are Israelites;
theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants,
the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;
theirs the patriarchs, and from them,
according to the flesh, is the Christ,
who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

Gospel
Mt 14:22-33

After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat
and precede him to the other side,
while he dismissed the crowds.
After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
When it was evening he was there alone.
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore,
was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night,
he came toward them walking on the sea.
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.
“It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.
At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Peter said to him in reply,
“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.”
Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.
But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened;
and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter,
and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
After they got into the boat, the wind died down.
Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying,
“Truly, you are the Son of God.”

Don Schwauger

Meditation: Does the Lord seem distant when trials or adversity come your way? It was
at Jesus' initiative that the disciples sailed across the lake, only to find themselves in a

1
life-threatening storm (see Mark 6:53-56). Although they were experienced fishermen,
they feared for their lives. While Jesus was not with them in the boat, he, nonetheless
watched for them in prayer. When he perceived their trouble he came to them on the sea
and startled them with his sudden appearance. Do you look for the Lord's presence when
you encounter difficulty or challenges?

This dramatic incident on the sea of Galilee revealed Peter's character more fully than
others. Here we see Peter's impulsivity – his tendency to act without thinking of what he
was doing. He often failed and came to grief as a result of his impulsiveness. In contrast,
Jesus always bade his disciples to see how difficult it was to follow him before they set
out on the way he taught them. A great deal of failure in the Christian life is due to acting
on impulse and emotional fervor without counting the cost. Peter, fortunately in the
moment of his failure clutched at Jesus and held him firmly. Every time Peter fell, he rose
again. His failures only made him love the Lord more deeply and trust him more intently.
The Lord keeps watch over us at all times, and especially in our moments of temptation
and difficulty. Do you rely on the Lord for his strength and help? Jesus assures us that we
have no need of fear if we trust in Him and in his great love for us. When calamities or
trials threaten to overwhelm you, how do you respond? With faith and hope in God's
love, care and presence with you?

"Lord Jesus, help me to trust you always and to never doubt your presence and your
power to help me. In my moments of doubt and weakness, may I cling to you as Peter
did. Strengthen my faith that I may walk straight in the path you set before me, neither
veering to the left nor to the right".

Fr. Joseph Pellegrino

He Calls Us to Walk with Him on the Water.

I want to start this week at the beginning: “In the beginning God created heaven
and earth.” Now that’s really the beginning. We learn from Genesis that on the first day
God created the heavens and earth and then created light to overcome the darkness. On
the second day we learn that the earth was covered in water. God created land and
separated the seas from the land. He conquered the seas.

To the ancient people, the seas represented chaos. Fishermen and sailors, then, as
well as now, know all too well the sudden turmoil caused by rough waters. If you ever
saw the movie, The Perfect Storm, you would understand why the water is associated
with chaos. Think back to horrible Asian tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands. I
experienced a horrible blizzard when I was in Boston at the beginning of my priesthood.

2
Since the Boston area is on the water, tremendous damaged was caused by the sea. I used
to show people homes in the Revere and Winthrop area that had their second story
windows destroyed by waves.

The sea hits us in the front, the back, the left and the right. There is no escaping it
when we are in the middle of it. That is chaos.

But God conquered the seas. And Jesus walked on the water. He continues to
walk on water. He walks on the chaos of our lives.

That is what the Gospel reading is telling us today. No matter what the chaos is in
the world and in our lives, Jesus walks on it. He conquers the chaos.

Jesus conquers the chaos that is caused by things that our beyond our control.
Life itself is chaotic. Just when all is seems to be calm, a loved one suddenly dies. All of
us have experienced this. We did not cause the chaos, but we do suffer from it.

Jesus conquers the chaos, even that chaos which we ourselves cause in our lives.
Many of us have made bad choices. Many of us have sinned. Many of us suffer the
results of our sins or the sins of others. For example a person finally recognizes that he
has gotten into a relationship which is destroying his family and destroying himself. He
returns to his family, but the damage has been done. He and his family suffer the results
of his sins.

It makes no difference whether we caused the chaos or whether we suffer from

the chaos caused by others. Jesus still walks on the water. He conquers the chaos. Then,
do you know what he does? He calls us to walk out onto the chaos and walk towards
him. “Come Peter.” Peter walked on the water. At least for a bit.

That’s what Jesus does for us all. He walks on the chaos of our lives, and then
calls us to come and join him. He gives us the strength to walk on water.

3
 And what if we fail? What if we blink, and sink like Peter did? “Don’t be
afraid,” the Lord says. He is there to reach down and lift us out of the water, out of the
chaos, just as he lifted Peter out of the water, out of the chaos of his life.

The Lord knows that we are not saints, not yet anyway. He knows that we are
weak. He accepted Peter, that loud lout, that well meaning coward, and turned him into
the Rock of the Church. He takes us as we are and walks with us on the water. He only
asks us to have the courage to put our faith in Him. He gives us the strength to join Him
in conquering the chaos.

Where is the chaos in your lives, in my life? Is it sickness or death? Is it

chemical dependence? Is it some other addiction? Is it turmoil in your marriage or your
family? Where have the seas raised up to chaotic dimensions? Wherever that chaos is,
please remember, that there is nothing, no chaos that is too great for Jesus to conquer.
And there is nothing too devastating for us to conquer with Him.

He walked on the waters, and He calls us to walk with Him.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
August 7, 2005
1Kings 19:9,11-13; Rom 9:1-5; Mt 14:22-33

1) We learn three lessons from today’s Gospel:

a. When we keep our eyes on Jesus, all good things are possible;
b. When we take our eyes off of Jesus, all bad things are possible; and
c. Whenever we fall, we should follow St. Peter’s example in calling on the Lord for
help, who wants stretch out his hand to help us.

2) First, when we keep our eyes on Jesus, we can do amazing things. Peter and the other
disciples were fearing for their lives on the sea of Galilee. They were fishermen, pros on
that very sea, and they knew because of the nature of that storm, that they were in a lot of

4
trouble. Yet, in the midst of the storm, in the fourth watch of the night (in other words,
about 2:30 in the morning), soaking wet and after having rowed for hours, Jesus came
walking on the water. They were already fearing for their lives; when Jesus came toward
them walking on the water, their first response was that he was a ghost, a figure of death,
rather than a Savior and bringer of life. Jesus said in response, however, “Be strong. It is
I. Don’t be afraid!” After hearing those words cutting across the fierce winds, Peter spoke
up: “Lord, if it is really you, bid me to come across to you on the water!” Notice what
Peter did not say: “Lord, if it’s you, give me too the power to walk on the waves.” He
wasn’t interested so much in the extraordinary event, in having Jesus’ power over nature;
he just wanted to come as quickly as possible to the Lord. And he had faith enough to ask
to do it, and to risk everything. The ferocity of the storm up to that point had made him
fear for his life and he and the others had been rowing with abandon for hours to prevent
their little boat from capsizing and sending them overboard. Yet he loved the Lord so
much that he would take that risk of faith and hop overboard. He stepped out of the boat
and by Jesus’ power didn’t sink as he headed toward the object of his desire, Jesus.

3) For us, too, all things are possible when we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord in faith. It
seems that Jesus was asking the impossible when he told Peter to “come,” but Jesus never
gives a command without giving us the ability to fulfill it. And through prayer, he has
given us the ability to seek God’s help to do amazing things. Jesus said — and he meant
— that whatever we ask the Father for in faith, he will grant us (Mt 21:22; Mk 11:24; Jn
11:22; Jn 14:13; Jn 15:7; Jn 15:16). He said that if we have faith the size of a mustard
seed, we could say to a mountain, “Be uprooted and thrown into the sea,” and it would
move (Mt 17:20). Jesus promised this not because he wanted us to be magicians or open
a landscaping business, but to tell us that he would give us anything we need to increase
our faith. Jesus gave Peter the ability to walk on water, not so that he could take short
cuts to get from one part of the sea of Galilee to another, but so that he could come closer
to Jesus. The Lord wants to do the same with us. He knows that many of us are afraid
because of personal or familial or other types of crises that are weighing on us. He knows
that very often we feel we’re fatigued because we’ve been “rowing” for weeks or months
and still seem to be in great danger of capsizing. If we keep our eyes on the constantly
coming waves of worries, we, like the apostles in the boat, know that eventually they’ll
overcome us. But Jesus wants us to learn from Peter’s example that if we keep our eyes

5
on him, if we ask for the grace to come to him, he’ll give us that grace, even when it
seems impossible. Today, in the presence of the same God here in this Church, we can
ask Him for the grace to keep our eyes on him at all times, to be attentive to his voice,
whether it comes in extraordinary ways or in the simple breeze, as it did for the prophet
Elijah in the cave on Mt. Carmel. And if there’s anything that is keeping us from Jesus,
we can ask him to give us the grace to overcome that obstacle so that we might come to
him.

4) The second lesson we learn from today’s Gospel is that when we take our eyes off of
Jesus, almost anything bad is possible. St. Peter, by Jesus’ power, was actually walking
on the waves, but even amidst that great confirmation of faith, his faith began to waver.
St. Matthew tells us he “took account of the winds” — in other words, he took his eyes
off of Jesus and began to worry again — and then started to sink into the life-threatening
waters. The same thing happens with any believer. When we take our eyes off of Jesus,
there’s no limit to the depths to which we can sink. This is what countless saints have
recognized throughout their lives. St. Philip Neri, a great 16th century apostle of Rome,
used to greet the Lord every day in his morning offering: “Lord, it’s Philip, please help
me lest I betray you again!” So many other saints have made famous the saying, “But for
the grace of God go I!” All of them knew that, were it not for the grace of God in helping
them to keep their eyes fixed on Christ amid the storms of their personal lives, they’d be
capable of committing almost every sin.

5) This is depicted very well artistically in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Over the main
entrance to the Basilica, through which every pilgrim must walk to enter the Basilica,
there is a sculpture of Peter’s receiving the keys of the kingdom of heaven from Christ, to
symbolize the Pope’s divine mission and institution (cf. Mt 16:16-20). But over the inner
side of the same door, through which every pilgrim walk to exit the basilica, there is a
mosaic of this gospel, at the moment when Peter is sinking below the waters and Jesus is
coming over to him. Why is this place there? Because the Church wanted to remind every
pilgrim leaving the Basilica, that even though the Pope speaks in Christ’s name, even
though he has a divine mission and countless graces from God to help him fulfill it, he’s a
human being — just like the first pope! — and if he takes his eyes off of the Lord and
begins to take their faith for granted, he could fall to great depths. And when that mosaic

6
was being finished 400 years ago, Christians were well aware that many popes had taken
their eyes off of Christ and had sinned very badly. The Church wanted to have all
pilgrims pray for the Pope, so that his faith might not fail, so that he could keep his eyes
on the Lord. What is valid for Peter and his successor is valid for each of us as well. If we
take our eyes off of the Lord, we can and will fall. I presume each of us is aware in our
own lives of the times when we have been distracted by various winds, taken our focus
off of Jesus, and sunk. Some of us may be treading that very dangerous water right now.
The question is what we are to do about it.

6) That brings to the third lesson we learn from the Gospel. St. Peter, as soon as he had
fallen, as soon as he had recognized that he had taken his eyes off of the Lord,
immediately cried out, “Lord, save me.” And Jesus at once put out his hand and held him.
He lifted him up, brought him back into the boat, and when both had entered, the wind
died down.

a. The first thing we see is that Peter had the faith to know that the Lord both could and
would save him and cried out without hesitation. We should learn from Peter and do the
same. Whenever we sin, by taking our eyes off of Jesus and falling in any number of
ways, we too, without hesitation, should cry out to the Lord to save us from these sins.
Jesus will stretch out his hand to save us. Normally he does that through the hands of a
priest. I applaud those people who come quickly to confession after having fallen, even if
it requires coming every week. One of the most serious worries of priests today from the
Pope on down to the new parochial administrator of St. Anthony’s is that when people
sin, they don’t come to receive God’s mercy. Some put it off for years. A friend of mine
who’s a recently-ordained priest in the Midwest, told me that his pastor asked him what
were his first impressions of his new parish. My friend, who has a great sense of humor,
told the pastor that it’s the greatest Catholic parish he’s ever seen. The pastor was
surprised at such an endorsement and asked him, “Why do you say that?” My friend
replied, “Because after having been here for six weeks, I’ve become convinced that no
one ever sins here!” — in other words, no one was ever coming to confession. My friend
asked me what my impressions were of St. Anthony’s in that regard. And I told him, on
the basis of the confessions I’ve heard, that it seems that those who speak Portuguese
must sin much more than those who speak English, because I hear five times as many
confessions in Portuguese as I do in English. Why that is, maybe you can tell me.

7
b. The second lesson we learn is what forgiveness is all about. Jesus lifted Peter up and
they got into the boat together and then the ferocious storm died down. When Jesus
stretches out his hand to save us through the hand of his priests, he brings about a
reconciliation not only with himself but with his Church. Peter’s boat, his barque, has
always been considered an image of the Church, and reconciliation with Christ has
always meant reconciliation with his body. This boat, despite the storms that it has
encountered over the last 2000 years, has never capsized. This is the only boat that we
can be sure of will reach its eternal port, because Jesus promised he’d guide it there.
Therefore,what a great gift we have! And no matter how many times we fall out of the
boat through our own choices, there’s always a spot back, and that’s where the Lord
wants to lead us. And it is in the boat of the Church with Jesus that we experience the
peace, the calm, that Jesus died to give us.

7) If we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, all things are possible. Today at this Mass, we,
too, behold the Lord, the Lamb of God, who, no matter how many times we have taken
our eyes off of him, has never takenhis eyes off of us. He constantly looks upon us with
Love. We will see him today when I lift him heavenward during this Eucharist. He’ll tell
us again, “Be not afraid! It is I! Be strong!” But he will do much more than that. He’ll
allow us to take him inside of us and slowly, more-and-more, become him. Let us then,
with the apostles in the boat, bow down before him in gratitude and say in prayerful
unison: “Truly, you, Jesus, are the Son of God! Save us!"