Year A
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Today’s readings are all about faith but not faith in dogmas. Faith in God is what the Gospel story is all about and Peter shows his lack of faith and trust as he attempts to get to Jesus over the stormy waves.
Often in the Gospels we hear Jesus rebuking the Jewish religious authorities, not specifically for their lack of faith in God but for their believing that the strict observance of the Torah would make them right with God. In so doing they miss what is at the heart of the Law which is, of course, love of God and love of neighbour. If they truly had faith and trust in God they would recognise that God doesn’t want religious practice but love.
In the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans he expresses his sorrow that so many of his Jewish brothers and sisters have been unable to accept Jesus and his message. This would be a good moment to remember that, even so, throughout the centuries ordinary Jewish men and women have remained faithful to the God whom they believe has chosen them specially and they have even been ready to die for that faith or have been persecuted and put to death for it. Allude to Nostra aetate.
Conclude by returning to the experience of Elijah who found God’s presence not in the violence of nature but in the ‘sound of a gentle breeze’ or better translated ‘the sound of sheer silence’.
It is difficult to have faith in God who so often seems distant and unheeding. Emphasise the need for prayer in the silence, accepting that God is present in the stillness, as he was present in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, suffering with his people, as he is present when, like Peter, we are challenged to launch out into the deep and do dangerous and foolish things for love of our neighbour. Perhaps end with the words of the man begging help from Jesus ‘Lord, I believe, help my unbelief’.
It is very easy to take the Lord's prayer, the “Our Father”, for granted. We know it by heart and it trips off the tongue with little effort; and sometimes we are scarcely aware of it. The collect for the nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time should therefore give us pause for thought. It begins, ”Almighty, ever-living God whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father.”
We are immediately reminded of the words which introduce the Lord's prayer at Mass: “At the Saviour's command and formed by divine teaching we dare to say.”
Perhaps we need to rediscover our sense of daring. Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that we have no natural entitlement to call God our Father. Conceived in sin, disobedient servants of our Creator, to be reborn as a son or daughter of God in the font of baptism is always an unmerited gift of Grace. If God had not sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying “Abba, Father”, the words of the Lord's prayer on our lips would be a hideous lie, a scandalous presumption.
But we have, in fact, received this marvellous gift. Therefore we can marvel and dare to ask in the conclusion of today's collect for the perfection of the spirit of adopted children of God, to be made worthy heirs of the eternal inheritance he has promised us.
423 Centre of my life (L)
683 O worship the King (L)
745 O changeless Christ (L)
853 Forth in the peace of Christ we go (L)
934 Dear Lord and Father of mankind (L)
972 Do not be afraid (L)
Key
L - Laudate
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
