and to the southeast beyond the land of the Decapolis, those cities where

Transcription

1 19 th Sunday of OT, Year A: 1 Kgs 19:9, 11-13; Mt 14: On the hill above Tabgha, the site of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, there is a small cave. Local Galilean tradition says that this is where Jesus withdrew after an exhausting day of miracles to pray in solitude with his heavenly Father. From this vantage point Christ would have been able to see the entire Sea of Galilee and the towns that were built on its coastline. As he looked left towards the east he saw the land of the Gerasenes and to the southeast beyond the land of the Decapolis, those cities where Greeks and other gentiles were the majority and did not know the Law of Moses and the covenants that God had forged with Israel, a people still trapped in paganism and idolatry but where Jesus had had some success in proclaiming his gospel. As he looked right towards the west he saw towns like Magdala where he had set Mary free from seven demons and the imposing Roman city of Tiberias, a place he had not and would not enter, for it was a city that reminded the people of the oppression they lived under and where Christ

2 knew he could not go as it was not yet the Hour for him to be glorified through his death on a roman Cross. As he looked straight towards the sea to the south he could see where the Jordan river began to flow into the land of Judea, where his birthplace of Bethlehem was and the Holy City of Jerusalem, that the city he would spend so much time healing the sick and proclaiming His good news of salvation, a city that was deaf to his call to conversion and repentance, a city where he was soon to enter his passion and offer the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. And in the middle of the sea he could see his disciples in a fishing boat, being battered by a storm, in need of their master and saviour to save them from peril. As Jesus looked upon this scene, he it is as if he was seeing more than just the challenges that confronted him in his own ministry in Galilee and Judea, but he was also seeing the mission that he had in store for his Church. The early Church Fathers were fond of interpreting the disciples in the boat in the midst of a raging storm to be an image of the Catholic Church, so often battered by the storms of forces outside that Church that seek to

3 obstruct her mission and forces within the Church that causes division and scandal to the world and inhibits the proclamation of the Gospel. As the Lord looks upon this scene, is it any wonder that he needed time to pray and ask for refreshment from his heavenly Father? It was the same for the prophet Elijah. For months he had been attempting to call the People of Israel back to God for breaking the Lord s commandments, slaying the prophets and worshiping false gods. The king of Israel was attempting to take Elijah s life and he was driven to Mt Horeb to hide in a cave not only to save his life but also to confront the terror within his own soul as he pondered the great challenges that lie before him. For both the Lord Jesus and Elijah, there was a need and desire to pray and be silent with God the Father. It was not prayer with others that they sought out, but silent solitude with the Heavenly Father for refreshment to continue their ministry among God s people. When Elijah prayed, he experienced a sharp contrast between the spectacular forces of nature such as the earthquake and whirlwind in which God is not present, and the small still voice of the gentle breeze in which

4 Elijah encounters God and rightly covers his face before the glory of the Lord. St. Irenaeus observed that the prophet, greatly downcast by the transgressions of the people, now learned to work with a greater calm to not only sustain him in his mission as a prophet but also to foreshadow the coming of Christ who will bring an everlasting calm and peace to his followers in the midst of their trials. Yet notice that Jesus did not come immediately to the disciples when the sea began to threaten them. He reminded them and in turn us that we can do nothing without him to stop forces beyond our control, and also that he does not remove every obstacle from our lives as these trials in fact lead us to trust in him more fully. And all of this began with the Lord s desire to first pray and only after prayer then to seek out those in need. We must realize that without taking time for personal prayer, in silence and solitude with God, we are deceiving ourselves into thinking we will grow closer to Him and be effective in our service to others or that we can obtain the peace and calm that comes from Christ without asking him to come to us in our time of need.

5 So too it will be for each of us if we do not make time in our busy lives to pray because every single Christian likely thinks in some way they are too busy to pray and then we wonder why they are so far from God as we have not been seeking out the refuge he offers us in daily prayer! Maybe it is only 5-10 minutes that we can spare for the Lord, to lock ourselves in our rooms or if possible stop by the Church to pray in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord in the tabernacle. Very little needs to be said in this prayer, actually what we may need is to listen more than speak. But when we do speak, let our prayers be honest, be they hope filled or riddled with doubt and suffering, and allow that soft whisper to give answer the deepest longings of the soul. Or if there is silence than we know that Jesus is praying for us as he watches us just as he watched the disciples in the storm, waiting to come to us at the moment he knows is best for us and our salvation, arising from his solitude to meet us and extending a welcoming hand as he stands upon all the troubled waters of life that seek to drown us, all the while affirming us Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.