19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Click this link to familiarize yourself with the Sunday readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/081008.shtml

This Sunday’s readings might be thematically described as “looking for God in all the wrong places.” In each of the readings we see different expectations and preconceived ideas about God and ourselves overturned by the action of God.

In the first reading God invites Elijah to Mount Horeb where he will find refuge from Jezebel, who wants to kill Elijah for the death of all his priests on Mount Carmel. God promised his presence to Elijah in this time of flight, and Elijah had all the expectations of a person of his times regarding where God might be found: the heavy wind, the earthquake, and fire. All of these would have been regarded as supernatural omens that reveal the presence of the divine by the people of Elijah’s time. However, God was found in none of these things. Instead, God was found in the whispering sound of a gentle breeze. Elijah’s response is indicative of his misplaced perceptions that were overturned by God who always surprises us with His presence.

In the same way Paul becomes frustrated over the fact that the chosen people of God refuse to accept Jesus. Paul recounts for us all the blessings God has given Israel that they might understand God’s presence among them in the person of Jesus – the adoption, glory, the covenants, the law, worship, promises, patriarchs, and Christ himself. Yet they did not see what should have been obvious to them. We might well say the same thing about ourselves. We are blessed to belong to the Catholic Church, the one Church of Christ. We have the gift of infallible teaching, the sacraments, and the blessing of saints who inspire us to holiness. And yet, do we recognize the presence of God in our world each day, and do we live as we should?

The answer to those questions is found in the Gospel reading where Jesus invites Peter to walk out on the water with him in the midst of the storm. Peter accepts Jesus’ invitation and begins to walk on the water toward Jesus. Then, Peter loses his focus. He takes his eyes off Jesus and begins to worry about the storm and the water. Imagine an experienced fisherman who knows how to swim very well, and he is unable to do not only the miraculous but also the very ordinary – all because he lost sight of the real source of all our abilities both natural and supernatural – Jesus. All of the other trappings of our tradition avail us nothing if we do not have that fundamental orientation in our hearts and minds.

May we always be attune to the presence of God every moment of our lives, appreciate the tradition from which we come, and always have Jesus as our sole focus in all we do.