Commentary
Sunday, 8/9/2020, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Shut Up and Listen
First Reading Commentary: 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a
When we seek to be with the Lord, we often want some tangible sign that lets us know that He is present. Sometimes, we even wish that God would appear to us in a physical way. The fact is that God is with us all of the time and if we clear all of the world’s distractions (junk) out of our minds, we can hear Him speak to us.
Elijah found this out when he went to Mount Horeb. It is interesting to note that Mount Horeb is the mountain of God--Mount Sinai, where Moses had his encounters with the LORD. It is the same place where Moses had asked the LORD to show His face. The LORD would not show His face but He did allow His beauty to pass by Moses. Refer to Exodus 33:18-34:9.
Elijah’s encounter with the LORD was similar to that of Moses. They both were in distress because the Israelites had forsaken the LORD’s covenant. They were both called to the mountain and the LORD responded to both of them. The LORD came down in a cloud and passed by Moses and spoke. But with Elijah, the LORD took a different approach.
The LORD told Elijah to go outside of the cave and that He would be passing by. There was a strong and heavy wind which was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. There was an earthquake and there was fire but the LORD was not in either of those. There are many places throughout the bible where we see the presence of the LORD in the wind or an earthquake or in fire. But the LORD chose not to reveal Himself to Elijah in such a way.
After the fire, there was a tiny whispering sound and Elijah hid his face in his cloak and stood by the entrance of the cave. Elijah hid his face because he knew that no one could look at the Lord’s face and that the LORD was present. The LORD had come to Elijah in a whispering silence.
The message here for us is that sometimes, we have to let go of everything that is in our hearts and on our minds so that the LORD can have a chance to speak. Sometimes, we get so caught up in our problems that we cannot think straight. When this happens, there is so much noise and distraction going on inside of us that we cannot hear God’s loving advice. This saddens God who wants to help us out of His love for us. But in order to do so, we have to give God our undivided attention which He wants from us and deserves to have.
We are no different than Moses or Elijah in our desire to have God’s presence in our times of need. God is no different toward any us either. He calls us and reaches out to us all of the time. Thing is; sometimes, we just have to shut-up and listen.
Put It in God’s Hands and Be Blessed
Second Reading Commentary: Romans 9:1-5
In 1 Kings 19:1-4, we find that Elijah was willing to have the LORD take his life because the Israelites had forsaken the LORD’s covenant. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he admits to having such great sorrow and constant anguish in his heart that he could wish to be cut off from Christ for the sake of his own people, the Israelites.
Paul did not ask God to take his life on account of the non-believing Jews but Paul was saying that even though he was not willing to do that, he could. Paul was no less willing to give his life for his faith than Elijah, but Paul understood the importance of having complete faith.
He understood that there is a difference between giving your life for someone else’s sins and giving your life because of your total and absolute faith in God. Paul understood that if his faith was to be complete, the right thing to do was to put the matter in God’s hands. Anything different would cut him off from God.
This is because Paul knew that he was not the Savior. Only Christ can take away the sins of the world and Paul knew that it was not his place to even try. Doing so, would be trying to put himself on Christ’s level and do His job and none of us have the means or even the right to even think such a thing.
But Paul’s message today is also telling us that God does not give up on us. A good parent never gives up on his or her children. No matter how many times we fall and no matter how bad we mess up, God is there for us because we are all His children. We are all blessed.
The Word became Flesh and became a man as a Jew in the person of Christ who made it clear that His saving grace was for everyone. That is Paul’s message when he says, “They are Israelites…and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”
Look at Me—I Can Walk on Water
Gospel Commentary: Matthew 14:22-33
After the Feeding of the Five Thousand, Jesus sent the disciples off in a boat while He dismissed the crowds and then went up the mountain by Himself to pray. Before we go any further into this gospel, let’s take a moment to meditate on Jesus going by Himself to pray.
There are three things to consider. First, once again, we are reminded that Jesus is God. You would think that He did not have to pray. But we are also reminded that Jesus was human and, in His humanity, He was just like us and spent much time in prayer. Jesus prayed with humility to the Father and Jesus prayed for all of us.
Second, we should not forget that immediately before the Feeding of the Five Thousand, Jesus received the news of John the Baptist being beheaded. In His humanity, Jesus was grieving and emotionally upset and it is understandable that He wanted to be alone.
The third consideration is in Matthew 6:5-8 where Jesus tells us to pray in secret to the Father who sees in secret and will repay us. Private prayer is both important and special because while in private prayer, we share an intimate moment with God where we can talk to Him and He can talk back to us. We have an opportunity to have a one-on-one encounter with God just as Elijah did in today’s first reading. This does not mean that we should not pray in public. To the contrary, we should as Jesus never told us not to pray in public, rather, Jesus did tell us that He is present whenever two or more are gathered in His name.
When it was evening, a storm erupted and the boat was tossed about by the waves. During the fourth watch, Jesus approached the disciples on the boat while walking on the waters of the sea. Imagine being out on the ocean at night in the midst of a terrible storm and all of a sudden you see someone walking on water toward you. Personally, I cannot think of any words that are strong enough to describe the terror that would be inside of me if I was on that boat. You can imagine why Matthew tells us that the disciples were terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Jesus was not out to scare anybody but He did want to strengthen their faith by giving them yet another sign of who, He was. So, Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” I am sure that they were not relieved because they knew the person that was walking on water but they were relieved to know that it was Jesus. Their faith was still growing but they knew that Jesus had the power to perform great works--miracles so they should not have been so surprised to see this. Frankly, it was a test of faith.
Peter said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Notice that Peter still had doubt by saying, “…if it is you…” This is a good time to stop and check our own faith. At that given moment for Peter, would we have had any more faith than he did or would we have doubt because of our fear? Peter’s wanting to walk on the water was a demonstration that he wanted to be with Jesus and he wanted to be like Jesus. Peter had faith but he also still had doubt of this event and needed proof.
Jesus said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on water but when He realized how strong the wind was, he became frightened and began to sink. Peter had enough faith and a strong enough desire to want to be with Jesus to get out of the boat but his human nature caused him to pay too much attention to his surroundings instead of focusing on the faith that gave him the strength to step out of the boat. That is why he began to sink and we all make the same mistake from time to time. Some of us make that mistake all of the time.
We get into trouble and we know very well that only God can save us but we are so consumed in our troubles that we cannot let go of the doubt and we do not believe that we will be saved until we are.
Peter cried out, “Lord, save me!” Of course, Jesus did just that and said, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus used this experience with Peter to teach us all a lesson. God is always there for us! No matter how bad times may be, no matter how much trouble we may be in, no matter what; we can always count on God to be there for us. All we have to do is believe and ask.
