19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - August 9, 2020
19th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Cycle A
When I was twenty-five years old, I experienced the first real storm of my life.
My mother was diagnosed with cancer, and it was advanced. Mom died nine months later.
This was a very painful loss for me. It was a major storm in my life, right in my first year of priesthood.
Well, not just me, but all of us have storms in our lives. It could be right now, in the pandemic – anxiety about whether we will get infected with Covid, anxiety about our finances or about losing our job.
It could be the death of a parent or a child, or a husband or wife or dear friend. It could be loneliness or depression.
It could be failing to get into the college where we wanted to go. It could be the need to deal with an addiction.
You, I am sure, can think of other examples We all have storms in our lives.
Peter’s Storm
I think of this as we hear today’s gospel.
Peter and the other disciples are in a boat on the lake, and it gets stormy. The wind and the waves are tossing the boat around.
It is a real storm, but it is also symbolic. It is intended to be symbolic of the storms in our lives.
In this situation, Peter in his fear looks to Jesus and calls out, “Lord, save me!” So, he turns to Jesus in the midst of the storm.
That, I think, is the message. We need to do the same thing.
The question is: what does this mean? How do we turn to God in the midst of a storm?
In my life, I have come to see three things as important. Three habits or practices are important for allowing God to help us get through the storms.
Three Habits or Practices
First, some prayer every morning is helpful and even essential. It can be simple, and it is probably better if it is in our words and not a learned prayer.
In this prayer, and this is very important, resolve to do your best today. Resolve to give yourself as best you can to whatever you have to do this day and ask God’s help in doing this.
This is important because sometimes we will just have to push ourselves and make ourselves keep moving through the storms. So, in the morning, ask God’s help in your resolve to give yourself as best you can to your responsibilities of the day.
Then second, choose a brief, one-sentence prayer and repeat this often throughout the day. For example, Peter’s words, “Lord, save me.”
Or, Jesus’ words: “Do not be afraid.” Or, “I am with you always.”
A one-sentence prayer helps us to stay centered on God throughout the day. It helps us to keep our eyes on Jesus when we are in stormy seas.
And then, third, make space for some silence. Elijah in the first reading gives us a great example of this.
He hears the Lord not in any dramatic way – not in the thunder or the wind or the fire, but rather, in silence. My experience is that in the storms of life, we need to go within and listen to our inner self, and this is why we need some silence in our lives.
God often speaks through our feelings, our deepest desires, our ideas and our longings. God can really help us through our storms in this way, and we need to be quiet and listen to him in our inner self.
Conclusion
So, 1) a prayer of resolve in the morning, 2) a one-sentence prayer for repeating throughout the day, and 3) some silence to help us go to our inner self – these are ways to turn to Jesus and allow him to help us in the storms of our lives.
