Read­ing Time: 3 minutes

Introduction

After feed­ing the crowd spir­itu­ally and mater­i­ally (cf. Matt 14:13–21), Jesus dis­missed them after ask­ing the twelve dis­ciples to pre­cede him to their next des­tin­a­tion. Hav­ing dis­missed them, he now with­drew to the moun­tain­side to pray. Jesus nev­er did any­thing without con­sult­ing the Fath­er. Jesus’ own style of pray­er is quite dif­fer­ent from the acro­bat­ic show and the magic­al exhib­i­tion many do today in the name of pray­er. To under­stand the true mean­ing of pray­er and the right atti­tude toward pray­er, we must get back to the pages of the Gos­pel and learn from Jesus. For Jesus, pray­er is con­sulta­tion. He con­sults with the Fath­er to see if what he has done is in order and to seek dir­ec­tions con­cern­ing what he is about to do and what he is to teach.

You of little faith…

“…you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matt 14:31). After sav­ing Peter, Jesus rep­rim­anded him for his little faith and for doubt­ing. The Greek word oli­gop­is­tos is used to refer to a per­son who does not believe or trust firmly in God. Hence, little faith (cf. also Matt 8:26). Little faith does not refer to the quant­ity of faith because faith can­not be weighed. No scale can weigh faith except the scale of faith itself. Little faith is a ref­er­ence to the qual­ity of a person’s faith and con­fid­ence in God. How many times have you, in your troubled and seem­ingly impossible situ­ation, wondered if God still remem­bers some­body like you? How many times have you doubted if God really exists?

The struggle for life

“In the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came towards them, walk­ing on the sea” (Matt 14:25). From records, we know that the Roman army divided the night into four watches (from 6:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m.). Each watch was com­prised of three hours. The four watches include: Evening/first watch (6:00–9:00 pm), Midnight/second watch (9:00–12:00 am), the cock-crow/third watch (12:00–3:00), and morning/forth watch (3:00–6:00), cf. Mark 13:35. Since the fourth watch is early morn­ing, some Eng­lish Trans­la­tions of the Bible trans­late Mat­thew 14:25 as early in the morn­ing; as the night was end­ing; around 3 or 4 o’clock. There­fore, the fourth watch means the dis­ciples have been bat­tling with the wind for some hours. How long have you been strug­gling with your own storm? The storm could be any­thing. That of the dis­ciples las­ted for hours. Some people’s storms last for days, weeks, months, or years, yet, there seems to be no way out. Be cour­ageous and do not fear. The solu­tion will def­in­itely come at the right time, provided the right dir­ec­tion is maintained.

Conclusion

Jesus’ words to Peter are also meant for every Chris­ti­an. Look­ing for God where God is not and can­not be found is a clear sign of oli­gop­is­tos. There are places, times, and cir­cum­stances that we think sig­ni­fy the pres­ence of God, but they do not. Neither the dev­ast­at­ing wind, earth­quake, nor fire sig­ni­fied the pres­ence of God (cf. First Read­ing), and Eli­jah under­stood this. It was only at the appear­ance of the gentle breeze that God mani­fes­ted him­self. Does this mean any­thing to con­tem­por­ary Chris­ti­ans who think shout­ing sig­ni­fies god­li­ness? Noise does not denote spir­itu­al­ity. Due to his little faith and doubt, Peter shouted. But Jesus calmly asked him to be quiet. Get­ting out of the boat means get­ting out of any­thing that pre­vents you from real­iz­ing your dreams. It means abandon­ing the old way and embra­cing the way of God. We should always test our faith to ensure it is stronger. I wish you God’s bless­ings this week and always. Get up and respond to the call of God. Do not be like the Israel­ites, who nev­er appre­ci­ated God’s cov­en­ant with them (cf. Second Read­ing). Be cour­ageous, and do not allow any exper­i­ence or any­one to let you sink. Let your faith grow stronger always and nev­er doubt because God (the omni­po­tence) is not a doubt­ing God; oth­er­wise, he would not have cre­ated you. God believes in your capa­city to excel. There­fore, be optim­ist­ic and move ahead, for God is always with you, and he has nev­er ceased lov­ing you. God bless your efforts this week and always. Sha­lom!     

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE:
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 19^th Sunday of the year (A) is found in The Word of Life, vol. I, pages 401–408. Happy reading!

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