Homily – 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

The accounts of Jesus walking on water have captured the imagination of generations of believers and non-believers alike.  Water is both a key to our existence and a threat to our lives.  Without water we would not be alive at all.  At the same time floods, tsunamis and torrential rains can cause havoc and destruction.  In many ways to have control of the waters is to have control of our lives and our world. And so ‘the waters’ are highly symbolic for human beings.  We talk about being up to our neck (in water) when we are under pressure.  We talk about going under (the waters) when we are being overwhelmed by things.  We talk about ‘drowning’ when we have so much on our plate that we don’t think we will manage it all. No wonder we are captivated by the stories of Jesus walking on the water.

The passage we read in this Sunday’s gospel, (Matthew 14:22-33), describes the disciples being sent ahead in the boat.  In fact Matthew tells us that Jesus ‘made’ the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side’.  He made them go ahead.  Was he sending them off to see how they would go without him?  Did he think that after witnessing the feeding of the five thousand (the passage we hear immediately before this account) that they would know that God, who is the bread of life, would never abandon them?

The experience for the disciples then unfolds.  Having being made to go ahead, they find that they are battling heaving seas and a head wind.  They are in turmoil and facing opposition.  Perhaps the headwinds and rough seas are symbolic of the opposition that the early Christian community, to whom Matthew is writing, was experiencing.  Perhaps they are symbolic of the struggle of coming to faith and leaving behind old ways, habits and beliefs for these new Christians.

It is in the midst of the headwinds and rough seas the steadying hand of Jesus appears. With a hand held out to Peter, he calms the waters and calls the disciples to faith. I am the Lord who walks with you.  Be not afraid.

As we listen to the account of Jesus coming to the disciples across the waters we can also reflect on the rough waters of our own lives, which we face from time to time.  We too, might feel like we are sinking or going under.  Sometimes it is because of an illness.  Other times because of an anxiety.  Sometimes it is the worry we have with our children.  For others it is a worry about aging or ill parents.  For others again it is both.  In all these circumstances it seems that the Lord has sent us on ahead too. Just like he did with the disciples he asks us to continue to cross the waters of our own lives.  And like the disciples he will never abandon us to the high seas.

We are invited to lift our heads and seek him out on the horizon where he is always walking towards us.  If only we had faith to see.

Fr Brendan Reed