Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year A

Readings: 1 Kings 19:9.11-13; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33

‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’

The consoling words of Jesus, to his disciples on a troubled boat in the middle of a rough sea, are the theme of today’s Liturgy. Jesus gives courage and assurance to his disciples, who were battling the heavy wind and tide on the Sea of Galilee. Interestingly, this incident happens immediately after the disciples enjoyed the glory of being with Jesus, when Jesus fed the multitudes with five loaves and two fish (Mt 14:13-21). It would have been an amazing time for the disciples to feel great as the followers of Jesus. How wonderful to be with a person who gives us free food and looks after us, so we do not have to worry about anything! But, as we see, this glory is short lived: instead of basking in joy, “Jesus makes his disciples to get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds” (Mt 14:22). It looks like Jesus wanted the disciples to get into the reality of life than keep living in the ‘dreamland’!

If we see in our life, it is true. We cannot, always, live in the dream world. Life is challenging and so it has to be! And so it happens to the disciples; they are tossed and shoved in the sea in their boat and they feel the reality of life. Not much different from our life, is it? We too are on this journey of life, tossed and shoved all the time with all the worries and cares of the world and we too feel caught up in the whirlwind of ‘busyness’. We feel vulnerable and look for help.

Interestingly, the scene changes again! Jesus walks on the water to reach to his disciples! What is going on here? First there is a miracle of feeding the multitude (time of glory) and this glory is short lived for the disciples as they entered the boat to cross over. Now Jesus is walking on the water (another time of glory)! Though the disciples failed to recognise him on the first place, eventually they do (after listening to Jesus’ assuring words: ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid’). And not only they recognise his voice, Peter wanted to partake in that glory! He wants, now, to walk on water too! But, the reality of life overtakes again and he begins to sink. Doesn’t it once again reflect our own life? Certainly we have the ‘glory times’ in our lives and amazingly the other way around is also true. We feel destressed, depressed and dejected and quite often we begin to sink. So does Peter! But help is not too far away. Jesus reaches out and helps him out and as they both enter the boat the wind dies down and all is calm again.

What do we learn from this episode in the Gospel of Matthew? It is the reality of our own life. We have our ‘up’ times and our ‘down’ times. We have our times of glory and so do we have our times of lowliness. We rise to the occasion and we occasionally fall. And that is how life is. So let us today accept the reality of life and enjoy our glory times and always call out to Jesus in our lowly times.

Amen.