20140805 STEPPING OUT IN FAITH
Reading 1, Jeremiah 30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22
2 'Yahweh, God of Israel,
says this, "Write for yourself in a book all the words I have spoken to
you.
13 There is no one to plead your cause; for an ulcer there
are remedies, but for you no cure at all.
14 All your lovers have forgotten you, they look for you
no more. Yes, I have struck you as an enemy strikes, with cruel punishment
(because of your great guilt and countless sins).
15 Why cry out because of your wound? Your pain is
incurable! Because of your great guilt and countless sins, I have treated you
like this.
18 Yahweh says this: Look, I shall restore the tents of Jacob and take
pity on his dwellings: the town will be rebuilt
on its mound, the stronghold where it ought to stand.
19 From them will come
thanksgiving and shouts of joy. I shall make them increase, they will not
decrease; I shall make them honoured, no more to be humbled.
20 Their sons will be as once
they were, their community fixed firmly before me, and I shall punish all their
oppressors.
21 Their prince will be one of
their own, their ruler come from their own people, and I shall permit him to
approach me freely; for who, otherwise, would be so bold as to approach me, Yahweh demands?
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 102:16-18, 19-21, 29, 22-23
18 This shall be put on record for a future generation,
and a people yet to be born shall praise God:
20 to listen to the sighing of the captive, and set free
those condemned to death,
Gospel, Matthew 14:22-36
22 And at once he made the disciples get into the boat and
go on ahead to the other side while he sent the crowds away.
23 After sending the crowds away he went up into the hills
by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
24 while the boat, by now some furlongs from land, was
hard pressed by rough waves, for there was a head-wind.
25 In the fourth watch of the night he came towards them,
walking on the sea,
26 and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they
were terrified. 'It is a ghost,' they said, and cried out in fear.
28 It was Peter who answered. 'Lord,' he said, 'if it is
you, tell me to come to you across the water.'
29 Jesus said, 'Come.' Then Peter got out of the boat and
started walking towards Jesus across the
water,
30 but then noticing the wind, he took fright and began to
sink. 'Lord,' he cried, 'save me!'
31 Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. 'You have
so little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'
32 And as they got into the boat the wind dropped.
33 The men in the boat bowed down before him and said,
'Truly, you are the Son of God.'
34 Having made the crossing, they came to land at
Gennesaret.
35 When the local people recognised him they spread the
news through the whole neighbourhood and took all that were sick to him,
36 begging him just to let them touch the fringe of his cloak.
And all those who touched it were saved.
STEPPING
OUT IN FAITH
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: JER 30:1-2. 12-15. 18-22; MT 14:22-36 (ALT MT 15:1-2, 10-14)
http://www.universalis.com/20140805/mass.htm
All of us have at some
stage in our lives felt so hopeless that we thought we would never be able to come out of our
crisis, be it a financial bankruptcy, a failure in our studies, a mistake in
our career, an infidelity in our marriage, an incurable disease or a threatened
pregnancy. Today, Europe is going through a serious financial crisis, and
society seems to be at the brink of self-destruction due to a loss of moral
values and respect for the institution of marriage and family life. When
we look at the world situation, we cannot but feel worried for the future of
our children and our children’s children.
This was the situation
of Jeremiah in today’s first reading. In spite of his numerous and heartfelt appeal to his
countrymen to repent and turn back to God, they refused to listen to him or to
the prophets that God sent to them. As a consequence, the Northern
Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians and the Kingdom was in total ruins.
Yet, Jeremiah never gave up hope for his people. Subsequently, when the
Assyrian Empire was collapsing and disintegrating, Jeremiah was filled with new
hope that he wrote, “Now I will restore the tents of Jacob, and take pity on
his dwellings: the city shall be rebuilt on its ruins, the citadel restored on
its site.” In truth, this hope for the Northern tribes to return never
took place. The sanctuaries of Samaria, Shiloh or Bethel were not restored. Yet
Jeremiah never gave up hope, as this message was meant later for the Israelites
who were exiled in Babylon.
These words, which were
placed in the Book of Consolation, invite the people to look beyond their
present woes and tragedy towards the future restoration. Jeremiah did
not allow the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians to
deter him from keeping faith in the power of God to heal and to
transform. He assured the people that God would eventually restore the
kingdom to its former glory. In the same way too, St Peter was asked to
see beyond himself and look to Jesus instead when he was struggling in the
waters. So long as we focus on our woes and troubles, we will only become
nervous, anxious and fall into despair. What we need to do to is look
beyond our struggles in life to a future that is still open.
Indeed, even when everyone tells us to give up hope, we must persist in
clinging to whatever glimpses of hope that are given to us. This is what
the scripture readings encourage us to do. We must continue to hope for a
better future. For those who refuse to give up hope, they are often
richly rewarded. It is hope for a better future that gives us the will to live
meaningfully in life.
But how can we find hope
in apparently hopeless situations in life? We ask: can things ever change? Can my
relationship with my spouse ever be repaired and healed? Will I be able
to start my life all over again after losing my dignity, reputation and
credibility? Will I ever be able to find a job after being imprisoned for
some criminal offence? Can I ever live a normal life again now that I
have been diagnosed with cancer or have one of my organs removed from my
body? Indeed, the future looks hopeless and grim. Humanly speaking,
it seems impossible. This was the feeling of the disciples when they were
battling the treacherous storm in the sea. It was as if their boat
was sinking and they could be drowned. Yes, we must hope, but how can our
hope be sustained when immense sorrow or tragedy strikes us? Beyond the
doom, there is revival and restoration.
In the first place, when
we keep our eyes on Jesus, like St Peter, we will come to realize that the
storms of life need not destroy us. Often, such storms teach us
to be humble and to depend on God. As in the suffering of Jesus on the
cross, when it seemed like He was a total failure in His mission, in
surrendering His Spirit, God took over! His death teaches us that beyond
death, there is life. Only when we are ready to surrender ourselves to
the Lord, will He show us that He is the Lord of our lives. The
Israelites until then had been proud and arrogant. They were disobedient
to the Lord, relying only on their own strength, horses and military
might. By losing everything they had, and having only God to rely on, the
Lord showed them that restoration is not the work of man but by the gracious
power of God.
Secondly, the
misfortunes of life can make us bitter or better persons. Quite
often, God allows us to go through the dark night of life so that our faith
becomes stronger and purified as well. In such difficult times, when we
are challenged to come to a conclusion that God does not exist because He does
not seem to care, we can with faith choose the way of faith in entrusting our
lives to God. Instead of being resentful with God for taking away our
status quo or our loved ones, we can resolve to do the right thing and act
courageously by trusting in His fidelity and His vindication for us. Let
us humbly recognize and accept that the sufferings we are going through are not
so much God’s punishment or revenge on us but merely the consequences of what
we sow in life.
Indeed, the real
turbulence of life is not what is outside of us but what is inside of us.
What can calm the storm of life is our faith. Many of us are destroyed by
the trials of life because there is much disquiet, unhappiness, anger and fear
within us. But a man who has inner peace has an inner strength that can
withstand anything that happens outside his house. If Judah was destroyed
by the Babylonians, it was because the soul of the nation was sick and
proud. Divided within, they could not withstand the enemies from
without. Peace must come from within before we can find peace
without. Like the disciples, because of a troubled soul, we see ghosts
around us and this puts fear into our lives. What are the ghosts of our
sinful life that continue to haunt us in our dreams and in our unconscious,
making us fearful of people and the future?
Of course, making an act
of faith in Jesus is not easy during such times. Many of us are like
Peter. We initially make an act of faith in Him. But along
the way, when the winds get stronger, we become frightened and lose our grip on
life. Peter who took the courage to step out in faith to walk towards
Jesus “took fright and began to sink” when “he felt the force of the
wind.” We too can expect ourselves to struggle between belief and
unbelief in the journey of faith. Growing in faith in Christ is not
something that happens overnight. Each one of us would waver in our faith
even when we want to trust in the Lord. But the Lord is understanding and
tolerant. He knows that we are men of little faith and we do doubt.
So let us not condemn ourselves when we lack faith at times in the Lord. It
is all right, as Peter did, to lose faith in Him. God knows that we will
need time to grow and strengthen our faith in Him. No one becomes a
saint without first falling and then getting up and trying again. This is
so true of Peter. If his faith in Jesus was able to grow till he was able
to even die for Him, it was because of his repeated failure in love for Jesus
and Jesus’ forgiveness that made him realize the depth of God’s love for
him. Every failure helped Peter to grow in confidence of Jesus’ faithful
and forgiving love for him. Each failure was the means by which he grew
in faith.
The faith that we must
arrive at is our faith in Jesus as the Son of God. If we believe that Jesus is the
Son of God, then everything will be secure. As the gospel says, “And as they
got into the boat the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down before
him and said, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God.’” Knowing that Jesus is our
savior and we are God’s children and His beloved will give us the confidence
that nothing can overwhelm us, not even death. Like the Israelites and
Jesus Himself, we must allow God to choose His way and timing to save us and
manifest His glory and power.
At any rate, what we must
never do in such trying times is to depend on ourselves and give up on God
completely. When our doubts and fears cause us to sink, then like Peter,
in all sincerity, we must cry out all the more to the Lord, “Save me!”
Instead of fixing our eyes on the storm, let us turn our eyes to the Lord so
that the ghost of misfortunes and troubles will gradually vanish from us.
Our trials in life are transient and they never last for long. In such
times, we must plead with the Lord to save us. Placing our entire life in
Him and His presence, we will find peace and calm amidst the storm. And
even if we deserve the devastating consequences of our sinful actions, the Lord
is ready to bring us back the moment we repent and return to Him. Through
our desolation, the Lord brings His consolation.
With the faith of the
psalmist we pray, “The
Lord will build up Zion again, and appear in all his glory. The nations shall
revere your name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth your glory, When the
Lord has rebuilt Zion and appeared in his glory; when he has regarded the
prayer of the destitute, and not despised their prayer.” With this faith,
we can step out from our false security and the threats of the
world. With this faith, we will have the fortitude to turn the tide
of worldly values and destructive trends of society. By standing up for
Jesus in faith in this darkened world and getting ourselves wet in troubled
waters and calling upon the name of Jesus, we can be assured of His presence
and divine assistance. We might fail at times and fall from grace, but He
is there each time to lift us up. In Jesus, we will always have hope, a
certain hope.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No comments:
Post a Comment