18th Week in Ordinary Time 2021 - Tuesday - Walking on Water

 

St. Peter is certainly given a unique role among the apostles. As prince of the apostles, he’s given the great task of being the rock upon which the Lord builds his Church. And yet, St. Peter is also quite a relatable character in the Gospels. We can relate to his fear during the Lord’s Passion. We can relate to his confusion on the mount of transfiguration, when he even appears to stick his foot in his mouth a bit. And we can relate to Peter in the Gospel today. Having been called upon by the Lord to walk upon the waters, having been invited to trust the Lord, Peter sinks.

Each of us can imagine ourselves in the boat with the apostles in the Gospel today. Being tossed about by storms, Jesus is nowhere to be found. And then the Lord appears. Notice, how in this Gospel, Jesus does not calm the storms, like he does in other passages. Sometimes, the storms continue to rage around us when we detect the Lord calling to us. He’s able to walk on water in the midst of the storm, of course, because, he’s God. But then he calls out to us, amidst our fears and anxieties to trust him and walk out onto the water with him.

Sometimes, we hear the Lord calling, but we are too afraid to get out of the boat. Too afraid to take up a new work for the Lord, a new ministry. We make excuses. My life is too chaotic. My storms are too great. We focus on what we lack, instead of trusting in God who makes the invitation.

Perhaps, we even have moments, where we, like St. Peter, begin to walk on water for a time. We make that initial leap of faith, but then, also like Peter, we allow the fears and anxieties and opinions of our culture replace that trust, and we begin to sink.

How often have we made a commitment to pray daily, or read scripture daily. It starts up with such fervor, we know it’s the right thing to do, and then the distractions take us away from that holy conviction, and we begin to sink. 

But the Lord lovingly walks over to us, pulls us up, and invites us to try again. 

What are the stormy water across which the Lord is inviting us to walk? He has work for each of us. And that work appears as a stormy sea, to difficult for us to cross on our own. And it is. But he invites us to walk, to trust, to love him enough to trust him calling us to do what is beyond our natural abilities, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That Church leaders and all the members of the faithful may deepen their trust in the Lord who calls them to labor for the building up of the Church.

For deliverance from corruption in government and for the protection of civil liberty and religious freedom. 

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.