Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Reflecting on Matthew 14:22-33
When you find a Scripture text that touches you deeply at one time in your life, pay attention. You have made an intimate connection with God, and now that that Scripture has taken root in you it will grow and surprise you with new insights throughout your life.
I was on a boat on Lake Galilee with 30 pilgrims from the Denver Catholic Biblical School when today’s Gospel befriended me. The priest with us offered this beautiful insight: You can say that Peter was overly impetuous. You can say that when it really mattered he denied Jesus, and then left him as he endured the cross. But it was Peter’s profession of faith that was the Rock (Petra) on which the Church was built. Peter’s faith compelled him out of that boat because Jesus commanded him out, and then, when the darkness and wind terrified him, he reached out toward Jesus instead of back to the safety of the boat.
Isn’t that beautiful? The boat, the most valuable possession for his family’s fishing business and the only place of stability on that huge lake, was just behind him. But in his moment of panic Peter still trusted Jesus more than the safety of the boat. He reached out for him, and was caught by the Master of the Sea.
In the years that followed that moment on the lake I’ve experienced some difficult health challenges. But the power of this story has sustained me, and every day I reach out to him who is my only true safety.
Have you ever felt the loving arms of Jesus catch you?
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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).