Sunday, August 10, 2014
19th Sunday
in Ordinary Time
St. Lawrence
1st Reading: 1st Kings 19:9,11-13
2nd Reading:
Romans 9:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33
After he had fed the people, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he sent the crowd away.
And having sent the people away, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. At nightfall, he was there alone. Meanwhile, the boat was very far from land, dangerously rocked by the waves for the wind was against it.
At daybreak, Jesus came to them walking on the lake. When they saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, thinking that it was a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But at once Jesus said to them, “Courage! Don’t be afraid. It’s me!” Peter answered, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you walking on the water.”
Jesus said to him, “Come.” And Peter got out of the boat, walking on the water to go to Jesus. But, in face of the strong wind, he was afraid and began to sink. So he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately stretched out his hand and took hold of him, saying, “Man of little faith, why did you doubt?”
As they got into the boat, the wind dropped. Then those in the boat bowed down before Jesus saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God!”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Fear can scare some to their wits end. To others, however, fear bolsters their fighting spirit. But even in cases where fear emboldens a person, something in the person gets paralyzed. Consider what happened to the Apostles. Their faculties of recognition failed to identify Jesus because they thought he was a ghost. All the while we thought only children are afraid of ghosts!
Our sources of fear are more realistic. Good for us Jesus is there to give us the same assuring words: “Do not be afraid, it is I”. Jesus will not remove the problems; he will only give meaning to them. Suffering is an important emblem to Christianity. Why do you think Jesus was still sporting the marks of the nails that pierced his hands and feet even after he rose from the dead? Those scars were important. In fact he used them to confirm his identity to the doubting Thomas. By enshrining those wounds in the major parts of his body, he established suffering as the mark of a true Christian.
But suffering alone cannot define a Christian. In Matthew 16:24-28 Jesus laid down the other conditions to make sufferings salvific. He said: You must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. With self denial and quality discipleship, sufferings will no longer scare us but will embolden us to follow Jesus. —Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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