At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Mt 14:22-33
Click to go to << 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) 2011 >>
Click to go to << 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) 2008 >>
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.
In Jn 6 the crowds wanted to make Jesus
King by force. Jesus did not want his disciples to get that idea into their
heads. So he sent them away.
Parents need to keep watch over their
children against bad influence. That usually means bad barkada, bad reading
materials and bad videos.
Do something more positive. (1) Get to know
the barkada of your children. Provide opportunities for them to visit your
home. (2) Form the conscience of your children. Discuss the values and
counter-values in the news, TV and movies.
After doing so, he went up on the mountain
by himself to pray.
WE usually think of prayer as asking God
for this or for that. But prayer is more than that. In this particular episode,
we might consider this as a bonding time that Jesus set aside for his Father
and himself. We can also turn our prayer time into a time for bonding with God.
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles
offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.
Take note that this is not a storm.
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.
Jesus was walking toward them because he
wanted to get into the boat. Even if he could walk on the water, the distance
to the other side was so big that it was more convenient to ride on the boat.
The disciples were naturally frightened. It
was still dark. They could not possibly recognize Jesus. You also would be
frightened if you saw something moving towards you over the waters.
At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take
courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Someone counted 365 instances when the
words “do not be afraid” were uttered in the Bible. That means for every day of
the year God reassures us: “Do not be afraid because I will be with you throughout
this day.”
Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it
is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
This was an act of faith in Jesus. Peter
believed that he could also walk on the water if Jesus gave him the permission.
And in fact, he was able to walk on the water. The bible says: “Peter got out
of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.”
But something went wrong. He began to be
afraid. And he began to sink. Fear meant a weakening of faith. And with a
weakening of faith, he lost the power to walk on the water. In fact Jesus scolded
Peter: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Something went wrong. What went wrong? The
bible says: “But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened.”
That meant that he turned his gaze away from Jesus and looked at the wind and
waves. As long as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, as long as we remain aware
of the presence of Jesus, we shall feel confident and unafraid. Once we forget
Jesus, we shall be overcome by doubts and fear. But when that happens, we can
still cry out with Peter: “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand
and caught Peter.
And as Jesus rescued Peter, so Jesus will
rescue us.
Let us bring with us into our daily lives two
quotations from today’s Gospel. When things go wrong during the day, let us visualize
Jesus telling us: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” And when fears and
self-doubt assail us, let fix our eyes
on Jesus and cry out to him: “Lord, save me!”
