19th Sunday of Ordinary Time- - Come out……….of Your Cave… Darkness!1Kg19:9, 11-13; Rom 9:1-5; Mt14:22-33Dear Sisters, Brothers and Children, we begin another new week in the presence of God. Our participation in this Liturgy leads us to offer our life in our dealings with others. It also prepares us for all different moments of our life. It all starts with our encounter with the Lord Jesus in Sacraments and in community. He reveals Himself constantly yet we don’t find Him due to our struggle and our expectations. We shall be aware His presence in our simple and ordinary experience of day today life. “Eucharist is the highest form of prayer”, may this Eucharist unite us to experience His closeness and oneness.
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When do you become Panic, stressed and what do you do in fear?
Jessy said she becomes panic when there is thunder and lightning, she will not come out of her house, Mary said as a nurse I get stressed when the patient is either not co-operative or become critical then I spent time in internet googling. John expressed that he gets panic and scared thinking about his illness then he goes out fishing for hours. Clare said she sit down for drinks in her stressful days. 8 year old boy Pet said he plays video game during his days of stress. Priest said he gets panic when he loose his homily paper then he decides to speak till he finds someone begins to sleep. These are the cave moments of our life.
We all have these cave moments where we get asylum, when we face storms of struggle and stress. . It may be due to physical illness, emotional stress, relationship problems, and financial struggle. These are realities but when we go into our own caves, we want miracles happen in an extraordinary way and we look for a supernatural act of God. We want great things happen but we hide in fear, we run away from this reality either being passive or idle in a cave. I make my circle of darkness in that cave. The readings challenge us to come out our caves and seek Him in simple and ordinary events of life.
We have Prophet Elijah from the first reading. People of God separated themselves after the death of King Solomon in 922 B.C as Northern Kingdom and southern kingdoms. Northern Israel left Judah, the temple practices and the association of priests. They forgot God of Yahweh and followed practicing Idolatry under their new King Ahab who married a Pagan Jezebel. They set 400 priests to offer sacrifices to Pagan Gods. Elijah confronted them and their practices; he also challenged and proved that God of Yahweh was real at Mount Carmel. The furious Jezebel killed all her priests and ordered killing of Prophet Yahweh. Today’s reading text follows this event from chapter18. Then scared and deserted Elijah walked forty days and nights before finding a hiding place in a cave at Mount Horab. He was upset, stressed, depressed, broken and fearful that he will be killed for doing the work of God. He felt letdown for accepting God’s call. He wanted the Lord of Yahweh to do some extraordinary thing to stop this and to teach lesson to Jezebel and their people. . He expected their fall during a heavy wind but nothing happen, he thought that earthquake may swallow them completely, but nothing happen, finally God passes through a gentle breeze, calling him to come out of the cave and mix with God in simple and ordinary events of life. He realizes that Spectacular God is present in an insignificant way both in panic and peace.
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In the gospel, we have Peter, who expected a spectacular act of God, when Jesus said come out of this safe, secure boat and get into challenges of sea waves. Jesus stretching of hand is an invitation to Peter and all disciples to seek and hold on to His hands in ordinary and simple acts of all. Matthew is writing to a community who were facing persecution threats. Their faith was challenged; they found themselves in a circle of fear. Matthew is giving the example Peter to replace fear with faith and seek Jesus here and there.
Elijah was in a cave during fear of darkness, Peter was with disciples’ whole night in sea, and Jesus must have come to them early morning 3.00 am. They see not Jesus but ghost, fear prevents the Faith. We have fear of travel, fear of confession, fear of advice, fear of death, fear of illness, fear of loneliness, fear of retirement, If these fears take us into darkness caves, then we end up developing low-self-esteem, this will make us fatigue and up facing futility. Elijah felt useless and he was becoming depressed in the cave. God calls him to come out, to come out of darkness, to come out of fear and other struggles, with the words, take heart, Take Courage. Jesus calls Peter to come out into water, from the group of fearful friends, Jesus tells him, take courage”.
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What are the Panic moments of our life? When do we find stressful? Which darkness circle I get in? Where is my secret cave of darkness? Are we ready to come out and seek Jesus in our daily simple events of life….. Church history shows us how Jesus saved his Church from the storms of persecution in the first three centuries, from the storms of heresies in the 5th and sixth centuries, from the storms of moral degradation and the Protestant reformation movement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the storms of sex abuse scandals of the clergy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is the presence of Jesus which gives us peace even in the wildest storms of life: storms of sorrow, storms of doubt, tension and uncertainty, storms of anxiety and worries, storms of anger and despair, storms of temptations.
We are all familiar with the hymn Amazing Grace. It was written by John Newton an English sailor after his ship nearly sank off the coast of Donegal.
Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see.
Through many dangers, toils and snares
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I have already come.
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‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
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and grace will lead me home.’
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Above the office door of the Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung (1875-1961), hung a stone plaque inscribed with the words: Called or Not, God is Present. People wondered what kept the children and people alive in the concentration camp in the midst of pain, humiliation, hunger, suffering and depression, it was discovered later when they were going through dark rooms, it was written on the walls: “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining, I believe in love even when I feel it not, I believe in God even when he is silent” . (- at cell wall of concentration camp). Be not afraid, I am with you-Amen.
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