Blessed Michael J McGivney
Fighting Fear with Faith
The first reading and the gospel have the similar message, the revelation of the face of God. In the first reading God manifests himself to Elijah in a completely new way, different from the pagan gods and from the way to which Israel was accustomed as they knew these gods would come in overwhelming appearance. Elijah experienced God only silence and so we also need some time in silence in order to experience God in our lives.
When you are in presence of God, what image of God do you see? You might want God to appear like a violent wind that blows your enemies away. You might want him to appear like earthquake or like fire to devour and burn unfaithful people to ashes. When God appears, his true manifestation humbles us and beats our imagination. Sometimes, our anguish or disturbed state of mind might condition the way we picture God. But God is not a fierce-looking mammon that frightens us or who wants to take vengeance on us. Through history, God has appeared and given abundant proof of his faithfulness, mercy, compassion and constant concern for our salvation. He is inviting us today to drop wrong notions of him and to share in his compassionate concern for his people.
In the gospel we have a further revelation of God, through Jesus who comes, like the God of the Old Testament, as master of the sea, giving his own divine power to humans by walking on water. The second reading touches on the same theme as it reminds us of the difficulties Paul had to face. But in all these he swears that for his own people, the Israelites, adopted children, he would even wish to be cut off from Christ. He is deeply wounded why the Israelites, long prepared and with all privileges would not accept Jesus as their Saviour. How far are we willing to die for the conversion of fellow brothers and sisters?
Today’s Gospel specifically encourages us to fight fear with faith. Peter after being told to walk on water, he confidently starts to walk on water, but fear overtook him, and he started sinking. He immediately asked Jesus for help and Jesus stretched his hand and saved him. When Jesus held Peter, He chided Peter, saying, 'O man of little faith, why did you doubt?' Peter had lost focus from Jesus to the fear and doubt that filled him on the way towards Jesus. How many times have we lost the focus on our way towards Jesus our Saviour when he has called us, "come" because of the worldly fears, allurements, worries and the like. The only solution to fear is faith in Jesus. There is nothing we shall fear nor want if we have full trust in Jesus just like the way a child has faith and trust in its mother that she cannot let it fall down when she is thrown in air. We should have such faith in Jesus that He will not let us alone.
The gospel reveals God's readiness and closeness to help us when we feel our faith is faltering or wavering and when we are covered with fear. God is always near us and close to us at all times, we only need to stay connected to him and say with faith in Him, as Peter did, "Lord, save me!" One of the things we learn from Peter is that every time when he fell, he could rise up. He prayed when he started to sink. He said, “Lord, save me!” This is the prayer of one who failed to have faith and prayed out of a present need rather than out of pure love of God. Too often, Peter exemplifies the prayer life that many Christians have. The Lord knows the human weakness and acknowledging it in front of Him and asking help from Him is only what He needs to come to our rescue. Otherwise, if we try to look for our own ways to get out of our difficult life situations, He may leave us to sink. If Peter would not have asked help from Jesus and had started struggling on his own, he would have sunk down.
Brethren, let us not doubt what God can do in our lives, let's only fight that doubt and the fear that comes along with faith. Sometimes we become like Peter, who at first showed greater faith that by Jesus' word, he would move on water but later started doubting and he began to sink. We often start our journey of faith in Jesus with much enthusiasm and courage to live up to the values of the kingdom but suddenly our faith starts wavering, like the one of Peter, due to life situations and difficulties and we begin to sink. In our faith journey there many ups and downs of which sometimes we invite them by ourselves, and others are due to life situations. This is most common but if we don't lose focus and we stay connected to Jesus, He will surely raise us up again as He did to Peter.
Reflect today on your ups and downs in your faith journey. Where do you run to when challenges in life threaten your faith? Know that the Lord is with us and if we trust Him, he will raise us up whenever we try to fall.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, help me to trust you always and to never doubt your presence and your power to help me. In my moments of doubt and weakness, may I cling to you as Peter did. Strengthen my faith that I may walk straight in the path you set before me, neither veering to the left nor to the right. Amen.
Be blessed.
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