No Pandemic (Covid-19) Can Overpower Us (Nineteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time)

No Pandemic (Covid-19) Can Overpower Us (Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

1Kings 19:9,

1Kings 19:11-13,

Romans 9:1-5,

Matthew 14:22-33.

Reflection

Covid-19, a pandemic of the twenty-first century, is not only deadly but has awakened the individual, the family, the community, the society, and the world to a new order. People throughout the world, are anxious about the future but at the same time doing something at present in their places: working from home, dealing with joblessness, searching food for tomorrow, empty pockets without even coins, uncertainties in their lives, somewhat giving possible education to their children, more and more laying off jobs from many companies.

Will this be normal? A million-dollar question without any certainty, without any answer.

Leaving apart all these, will there be a future for the Church?

I say a big ‘YES’.

Before we start let us listen to the Word of God from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 14:22-33):

Then he made the disciples get into the boat

and precede him to the other side,

while he dismissed the crowds.

After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.

When it was evening, he was there alone.

Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore,

was being tossed about by the waves,

for the wind was against it.

During the fourth watch of the night,

he came towards them, walking on the sea.

When the disciples saw him walking on the sea

they were terrified.

“It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.

At once [Jesus] spoke to them,

“Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter said to him in reply,

“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

He said, “Come.”

Peter got out of the boat

and began to walk on the water towards Jesus.

But when he saw how [strong] the wind was he became frightened;

and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand

and caught him, and said to him,

“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

After they got into the boat, the wind died down.

Those who were in the boat did him homage,

saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”

Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side. Jesus was not present with the disciples. He sent them to the other side before him. But, the disciples did not ask him how he would come to the other side to be with them or to meet them. It simply showed that the disciples took for granted that without Jesus they could reach the other side with the help of the boat, a material thing.

The disciples did not even think that the sea way was not an easy way to travel to the other side. The boat would be troubled by the waves and winds against the boat and would make the travel difficult for them.

The disciples did not have strong faith. They did not have little faith too. They had blind faith on the material thing, the boat. They believed that they could reach the other side with the help of the boat. Did the boat help them?

No.

What would have helped the disciples to feel secure and safe on the boat and to reach the other side?

With closed eyes, without rational thinking, having little faith in Jesus, we can say that Jesus would have helped them to feel secure and safe on the boat and reach them the other side.

Here, the disciples represent everyone. The boat symbolises material things, our own belief system, rational thinking and so on. The sea is the world.

Then, Jesus dismissed the crowds.

Jesus went up on the mountain by himself to pray. There was no one with Jesus at that moment. He sent off the disciples by the boat and he dismissed the crowds too. He did not have any materials or persons to climb on the mountain. He went alone to the mountain. He went to pray.

We read in the book of Kings (1Kings 19:11-13):

“Then the LORD said: Go out

and stand on the mountain before the LORD;

the LORD will pass by.

There was a strong and violent wind

rending the mountains

and crushing rocks before the LORD—

but the LORD was not in the wind;

after the wind, an earthquake—

but the LORD was not in the earthquake;

after the earthquake, fire—

but the LORD was not in the fire;

after the fire, a light silent sound.

When he heard this,

Elijah hid his face in his cloak

and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.”

Elijah heard God not in a strong and violent wind, nor in crushing rocks, not in an earthquake, not in the fire, but a light silent sound. In other words, we can say that Elijah heard God in a gentle silence.