1Kings 19:9a.11-13a /Ps.84:9-14 /Rom 9:1-5 /Matthew 14:22-33

Beloved in Christ today’s readings invite us to reflect on the ways that the Lord may be calling us to take some new step in our relationship with him. The First reading from Kings relays the story of the prophet Elijah to Mount Horeb, the Mountain of God after a long journey from the land of Israel. Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, banished all the prophets of the true God from the country, only Elijah remained to preserve the true faith and make life miserable for Jezebel.

 He faced a great deal of opposition in the course of his work of proclaiming God’s word, in particular from Jezebel and those who sided with her. Elijah’s reaction was to take flight and to head out to the holy mountain, Mount Horeb.

There he had an experience of the Lord, not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but in what the reading calls a ‘gentle breeze’. It was in that moment of stillness that Elijah found the courage to head back into the work that the Lord had asked him to do.

Brethren, “the Lord appeared to him in a gentle breeze, and not in a great earthquake and fire that preceded before His coming and appearance”. This is a reminder to all of us that God is not all fearsome or wrathful, and despite all of our delinquent, stubborn and rebellious attitudes, He is still willing to embrace us and call upon us to return once again to Him.

Secondly, it can be very difficult to find spaces and times of silence in our busy world. We all need silence in our lives, and as followers of the Lord, we need the kind of silence that is charged with the Lord’s presence. So, like Elijah we have to find our own equivalent of the ‘sound of the gentle breeze’, where we can become aware of the Lord’s presence to us as strength in our weakness, as the still and calming point in our storm.

In the gospel reading, we listened to the story of the famous miracle of Jesus appearing before His disciples and walking on the water towards them. Jesus calls out to them saying “Courage!  For It is I! Do not be afraid” This reminds us that God is always in control over us and our lives, and we must always have faith in Him, and not in any other false idols and distractions, or other means and worldly things that we often think of depending on, instead of trusting in the Lord our God.

In addition, Jesus calls on the disciples to remain focused on Him as the storm raged. Peter initially showed a willingness to focus on Jesus as the storm raged. In fact, he asked Jesus to call him to step out of the boat and come towards him on the water. Peter did step out of the boat and walked towards Jesus.

However, he soon lost sight of Jesus and became aware only of the wind and the storm. Immediately, he began to sink; panic and fright set in once more. Let us focus on Jesus and not on the storm. The Lord who called on the disciples to have courage now calls on Peter to trust and not to doubt, “Man of little faith, why did you doubt?” While the Lord did chide him for his lack of faith and trust in Him, He rescued and helped, Peter and then also calmed the storm and the waves for the rest of His disciples.

When we are in a storm or crisis of some kind, it can really put our faith in the Lord to the test. The crisis can be so all-absorbing that we cannot see beyond it. We can see nothing else. The message of the gospel reading is that the Lord is always coming towards us when we are at our most vulnerable, when we feel threatened by forces over which we seem to have no control.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, all of us are called to put our trust and faith once again in the Lord, and to believe in Him wholeheartedly, remembering that each one of us are truly beloved and precious to God.