In faith

It was Peter who answered. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.’ ‘Come’ said Jesus. Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water, but as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took fright and began to sink. ‘Lord! Save me!’ he cried. Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. ‘Man of little faith,’ he said ‘why did you doubt?’ And as they got into the boat the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down before him and said, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God.’

Matthew 14: 28 – 33

I don’t possess the bluster that others do. If it is a difficult conversation that needs to be had, I’m not sure who it is more difficult for – me or the conversee. However well I prepare, as soon as the force of the moment, the encounter approaches, I do, in all honesty, begin to sink. I do have other strengths that will pull me through. I’m not sure I presume faith greater than that of Peter’s, but I have been long convinced that the Lord’s hand will indeed save me.

Commentators view the heavy seas that struck Lake Galilee and the great head wind that faced the disciples’ boat as the chaos and turmoil of the early church - after the destruction of Jerusalem c 70 AD. The transition from a Jewish messianic movement to an independent religion was anything but easy. Peter’s tentativeness in stepping out of the boat (the church), his doubt, his panic and flailing in the Galilean water and his salvation by Jesus’ intervention is the experience of that early community as it struggled to find its place outside Judaism, but without entirely resolving the tensions between their adherence to the Mosaic law and the increasing demands of the Gentile converts. The key was the same then and the same now. It is indeed faith.

Since the Romanisation of the Church, the tension between law and culture has never been satisfactory. The Jesuit missionary efforts to Christianise the east met with rebuff after rebuff, and various liturgical innovations are often seen as aberrations (smoking ceremonies in Australia, kava ceremonies on the Pacific islands, the Maori Powhiri) despite the apparent generosity of Sacrosanctum concilium from Vatican II and Varietates legitimate (the 4^th instruction on inculturation and the Roman liturgy).

There is no doubt that the turmoil experienced by the Matthaen community is fresh and naked today: the various commissions and inquiries into sexual abuse in the church, the empty pews, the paucity of vocations, the tendency to the right, the rise and rise of militant Islam and Christian fundamentalism.

If we choose to meet the turmoil head on, we need to do so with faith. Yes, we might end up flailing about in our own doubts, but at its real centre, is trusting – and knowing – that Jesus will reach out his hand to us. And we will be saved.

Peter

 

THIS FRAGILE GLOBE

by Kevin Bates SM

A huge explosion rocks Lebanon’s capital Beirut this week and life is abruptly ended for a large number of people and profoundly damaged for thousands more. On top of a terrible economy and the coronavirus, the people of Lebanon are facing first-hand the reality of life’s fragility.

Victoria is coming up with more than 700 new cases of Covid-19 infection this morning as the whole State is subjected to control measures not seen before.

The rest of us are on high alert not knowing where and when the virus will impact in our neighbourhood.

Scientists are scrambling to find a vaccine that may help us through this crisis and the outcome of their research still seems uncertain.

So much that once seemed stable and predictable has been replaced by a climate of uncertainty. Planning for future events is problematical and dreams of recovering what was once “normal” are fading fast.

Along with this, the global environment is increasingly at risk with many species of plant and animal life facing extinction. The world’s forests and oceans are showing signs of wear and tear and the flourishing life they once produced is rapidly diminishing.

It’s clear that our fragile mother earth is in need of help, the natural world and the human community.

There are many dedicated people with both the vision and expertise who are attending to the necessary healing and recovery processes. Many of us are increasingly aware of the crises that face us and feel somewhat overwhelmed and powerless in the face of them.

Others again go about their daily lives seemingly without a care in the world, consuming happily away, partying on, making sure that their own rights and needs are attended to and hang the expense.

Those whose world is centred on their own personal rights also manage to trivialise or deny the state of our world Others of us who feel the uncertainty that is shaping our global community, can feel isolated and lack the confidence to take any action that might repair and heal. We can then retreat into inaction and perhaps hope that someone else might come up with a solution to all that ails us.

The fact is that none of us is immune from the way the world is turning at the moment, and none of us is exempt from the responsibility to play a role in its rehabilitation.

Pope Francis in his letter Laudato Sí, which he addressed to the whole world, speaks of the interdependence of every creature. Despite whatever grand illusions we may entertain, we all depend on each other and on the natural environment. Here are his words:

Hence we need to grasp the variety of things in their multiple relationships.[62] We understand better the importance and meaning of each creature if we contemplate it within the entirety of God’s plan. As the Catechism teaches: “God wills the interdependence of creatures. The sun and the moon, the cedar and the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow: the spectacle of their countless diversities and inequalities tells us that no creature is self-sufficient. Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other”.[63]

In this season of uncertainty one thing is certain and that is that we have choices we can make that can enable healing, refresh hope and reclaim good order.

It’s high time that we dispense with the myth that we are self-sufficient, that we can consume away to our heart’s content and that the rest of the world can look after itself without our involvement.

If we allow God’s perspective to become our own, where concern for each other and for the world around us holds sway, then the shape of each of our days may well take on a fresh and hopeful hue.

When my little self makes way for our global self, we may well become that light for the world that Jesus said we could be.

Fr Kevin is parish priest of St Mary's, Hunters Hill, NSW