Fr. Charlie’s Homily – 19^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 9, 2020 – 9:30 am

To understand the full meaning of today’s gospel, I think it’s important to, at least for me, to review something that took me years in the seminary studying the scriptures, especially the gospels, how they came to be written. 

Originally, Jesus would have died around 30 – 33 AD, and they began to collect the stories, the sayings, the parables, the miracles and would pass those on – we just finished in Matthew’s gospel where they arranged a bunch of the parables.  And, what would happen 30 – 40 years later, when the Apostles began to die off and there was no one to guarantee what the dictations were, they decided it’s time that they write things down…

… and most scripture scholars today think that the first gospel written was Mark’s gospel.  That’s why there’s no infancy narratives to it, it just begins with John the Baptist and it’s very succinct, very concise.  And that would have been around 65 AD, and the time that Peter was martyred in Rome.  And they feel that Mark would have had this access to Peter, kind of like a secretary to be able to write those thoughts down.  

Well, it was 15 years, and that was when the persecution was going on – it was tremendous persecution – but 15 years later, the authors again think that both Luke and Matthew had the copy of Mark, began to write down their accounts. And so that’s why you get some re-arranging. 

So it’s taking those stories and then arranging them according to a story line.  And what the authors wanted to say, what the scripture scholars want to say is, you can tell something about the life in the early Christian community by the way they arrange the stories.

Today we have the story of the taming of the waters and the sea, as they go off, and you can think of Peter’s part as the Church.  So, this is written 40 – 50 years after Jesus, and that’s why Jesus is not present immediately in the account.  They’re out there on these rough waters, and always symbolizing chaos.  You go back to the Genesis story – the water symbolized chaos.  The waters of the gospel – it’s the Church suffering persecution...

...and ultimately when you get to the Book of Revelation, John says, ‘there will be a new heaven and a new earth and the sea will be no more.’  No more chaos.  And, in having Jesus show up today, we see the early church suffering the persecution – it’s like the stormy sea, and He’s not there.  In the other account, Jesus is in the boat, sleeping in the bow.  But there he comes, walking on the water, and challenging Peter, the head of the church, representing the church, and Peter says, “if it’s you, Lord, have me come to you.”  He says, “Come.”  And, for a moment, he was doing it – when he had his eyes focused and when Christ was at the center, he was walking on the water.  But, then all of a sudden, his faith wavered and he began to sink.  And in my mind, it’s very much what the gospel writer is trying to communicate:  that once we lose that focus; once Christ is not at the center, then the storm comes and we begin to sink. 

And that’s the challenge in day of the pandemic.  A lot of people think, ‘well this is the end of the world.’  We’ve been doing that for centuries.  Going back to the first reading today with Elijah.  God is in the wind, God is in the fire, God is in the earthquake.  It’s not in those dramatic signs that God is revealing Himself.  It’s in the gentle breeze, the whispering wind that all of a sudden that Elijah hides his face.
So, in my mind, what that tells us about today, is not that we see God in the dramatic.  That God is present, is present in our creation.  This is why Pope Francis has made this a moral issue on how we treat creation.  This is God’s gift.  Do we recognize – do we see the hand of God.  More importantly, do we see God in one another.

And Paul, in the letter to the Romans today, he wanted to say that he was originally the Israelite background and all the gifts, down through the centuries that were given to them; but what he’s trying to do is take them to the next step.  That thanks to what Jesus has accomplished, we have His Spirit dwelling within us, and if that Spirit is alive and well, it’s going to impact the way we encounter our world. 
That would be the challenge.  I don’t think we’re in the Apocalyptic time.  I think that it’s maybe a time of grace, as being on the water was for the strengthening of people’s faith.  Maybe it’s a time of grace for us, to consider what is life about? Why am I here?

I don’t know if you saw it, I think it was in the Chronicle yesterday, it was an article where the pandemic – for a handful of people – it was a reason for abandoning of faith.  The idea “if God would allow this, He must not be in existence – of what we’re going through.  But a much greater majority, in Pugh research, saw people coming back to a spirituality, coming back to God, because they finally realized what is the important moment. 

And in my mind, again, it’s recognizing Him in that gentle in that gentle whisper.  It’s recognizing Him in the poor; it’s recognizing Him in the immigrant; it’s recognizing Him in the refugee; it’s recognizing Him in the unborn infant. 

So, I don’t think we should be allowing politics to absorb religion, or religion to absorb politics.  We need to separate the two.  It’s getting critical.  Because those things seem to divide.  In the scandal of the church, when the politics takes over, when we’re focused on Christ the Truth, then we see the person in front, we don’t see an ideology.  We see the person.  What can I do?  And we think of that other person first, we think of that other person first.  What can I do?  In the meanings of the gospel, to address the needs of that person; to show God’s love to that person.  That’s what our faith wants to say to us in these moments. 

And, I’ve gotten to the point where my health is hurt by watching the evening news – I just can’t watch it anymore.  I think it’s time for us to bring the moral dimension of our dignity, our dignity is because we’re made in God’s image.  That’s why abortion is such an incredible sin.  Our dignity is recognizing that every person created in God’s image, deserves our love and respect.  So, we can’t push the poor away, and say, ‘let them go out and get a job somewhere,’ No, we need to be there for them to assist them along the way.  So, I just ask for the grace in this Eucharist, that it be a way of strengthening that vision, that faith, to be able to see God in that tiny, whispering wind, in the world of creation around us, in those we encounter each day that we can bring the love, and the joy, and the peace of the gospel to those in the world around us.