Sunday 19 A

Image: Night Passage, ©Jan Richardson.

August 10, 2014

Click here for scripture readings.

Faith, in essence, is not about religion.

What I mean by that is that the depth of our faith can=t be measured by what prayers we say or how often we say them.

Whether we end up here on Sunday or down the street at Grafton Baptist Church isn=t what makes us faithful.

Bottom line, as protestant as it might sound, our Catholic church teaches that our faith is determined by our relationship with our Lord.

By definition, it must start as a very personal thing because our Lord sees each and every one of us as we are; unique, lovable.

Our Lord=s knowledge of each of us is personal, his concern for each of us is personal, and his call to each of us is personal.

He can be found, recognized, and responded to.

This Gospel reading for this Sunday, is an eloquent treatment of just that notion.

In so many places in Scripture the sea, a stormy, unruly sea, is used as a symbol of the world:

life, without God.

The apostles have been separated from Christ, they are alone in their boat, and the sea, the world without Christ, is stormy and chaotic.

So much so that they are about to be overcome by it.

Then Christ is pictured as mastering the storm.

He literally walks over it.

Peter saw Christ looking at him through the storm, and became confident that together with Christ, he, too, would be able to overcome the chaos that seemed to surround him.

Peter said, "Lord, tell me to come to you."

And so he did, he held out his hand to Peter.

And here Matthew describes beautifully something at least of what St. Paul would later call the contradiction, the foolishness of Christianity.

Before you can walk on the water, you gotta get out of the boat.

Before Peter could benefit from Christ's power, he would have to step out of whatever had been holding him up until then,

he would have to risk walking away from what seemed to be so safe and secure and reasonable.

And for us, too, that is the hard part.

Getting out of the boat.

Putting aside the false dependencies, the securities, all the ways that we think we can make ourselves immune from chaos.

Materialism is a popular boat.

What could be a better barrier against the chaos than money and the things and the power it can buy.

Any number of dependencies can float us along for a while.

Drugs, alcohol, pleasure, the need for acceptance.

Even the human relationships in our lives can be a dependency, an influence that keeps us from hearing Christ's call.

So can laziness, the habits we build of not responding, not involving ourselves.

So can fear, perhaps even more so than anything else.

Matthew's intricate symbolism this weekend is clear and eloquent.

Christ is very near.

He is standing at the edge of our own personal storm, calling us.

But in order to respond we must ignore the storm, look down at the boat, name it, and climb out.

That=s the test of our faith.

If we can let go of what=s holding us back,

And climb out of that boat.

And, if we sink?

Well, that=s the stuff of another homily perhaps.