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Fr. Bob's Reflection for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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In our Gospel today Jesus says to Peter "come." It is a
simple invitation, one that Jesus gives us daily. It is the same one
that he offered to the rich young man elsewhere in the Gospel. The young
man turned away because he had many possessions. Think of the ways you
obey this invitation, think of the ways you avoid it. What is it that
makes it difficult for us to clasp his hand and come to Jesus? He said
to Peter and to us "come" but so often we hesitate.
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Peter became frightened. What is it that frightens us
the most? What frightens you? It could be waiting for the doctor to call
with the results of medical test. Parents are often frightened by what
their children are exposed to on TV and the internet. Seniors are often
frightened by growing disability and dependency upon others. Mid‑lifers
are frightened over losing their jobs, seeing incomes dwindle or their
marriages fracture. Sometimes teens are frightened of being counted out
by the in‑crowd.
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So often we are all frightened to get out of the boat.
At the start of our Gospel, Peter does get out of the boat. He showed
great faith in the Lord. In the beginning, he was faithful. To be
faithful is to take a risk, just as Peter risked in stepping out of that
boat.
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Actually, the whole human bag is a risk. If you do not
know that, you have been living on cloud nine. In the measure that you
are really alive, you are risking. You take all sorts of chances without
knowing how they will turn out. To marry is to risk. You risk your
individual life in the hope of finding it more full with another and the
odds today are only 50‑50. To love is to risk. You open yourself to all
the burdens that being loved lays on you and many crumble under it.
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To become a top flight doctor or lawyer or to be in
business is a risk. You may end up terribly narrow and one‑sided, closed
to everything except your profession or work. Even to be free is to
risk. You can say no to God, betray your Christ with a kiss. In a word,
to live humanly is to launch out into a large unknown. To be a
Christian is to risk. To begin with, you commit yourself to a Christ you
can not see. Your act of faith is just as breathtaking as Peter
stepping out of the boat.
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Here, you do violence to what you see and hear, touch,
smell and taste. You see a criminal on a cross and you say — my Lord
and my God. You hear words from a book and they turn for you into the
word of God. You taste bread and you eat the body of Christ. It is a
risk because you do not have certainty and you realize that faith is
more than nice thoughts and feelings. It determines your life.
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If we risk in committing ourselves to Christ who we can
not see, we risk perhaps more in committing ourselves to a church we can
see. For this is a pilgrim church, a community on the way not yet
there. A body of sinful men and women who at times are in startling
contradiction to the Lord who heads it. To the spirit who gives it life
and still it is Christ's community. It is here where he expects us to
experience Him and not only to endure it but to love it and take it for
better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health
until death....
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Scripture tells us that to be a disciple of Christ you
have to lose your life in order to find it. I do not know what life it
is that Christ is asking you to surrender or what it is that keeps you
from a deeper relationship with Him. What is it that weakens your faith
or stops you from getting out of the boat.... I do know that it is one
thing to be faithful when the issues are stark and clear, when you know
the way to God and what will end well. When it does not cost anything,
does not threaten your way of life but our life is not always like that.
There are times when we are lost and we grope in the dark. There are
times when we are not sure, when we are afraid to get out of the boat.
There are times when we want to rely and depend on someone or something
else other than Christ. When the Lord simply says you have your gift, my
church and your own conscience, my Grace and your good sense.
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So often we forget those wonderful words that we heard
from St. Paul in last week's readings, "neither death nor life, neither
Angels nor principalities, neither the present or the future, nor
powers, neither height nor depth, nor any creature will be able to
separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ our Lord".
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The truth is we are never alone. Note it was only when
Peter took his eyes off Christ that he began to sink. Remember the words
of Mother Teresa, "God does not call us to be successful but he does
call us to be faithful, to keep our eyes on Him, in good times and in
bad, in sickness and in health... keep your eyes on Christ.
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On a dark winters' night in a small Midwest family
community, a two‑story home of a young family caught on fire. The
parents and children made their way through the smoke filled home to the
outside. As soon as they reached safety, the mother screamed "where is
little John?" Just then they heard a wail and looked up to see their
5‑year old son at the bedroom window, crying and rubbing his eyes. The
father stood under the window and called out, "jump son. Jump and I will
catch you". In between sobs, the boy responded to the voice he knew so
well, "but I can't see you. Daddy, I can't see you". The father
answered, "But I can see you, so jump". The boy with faith in his father
jumped into the smokey darkness and found himself safely cradled in his
father's arms.
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Sometimes life is like that, we feel like we are on the
edge and don't know which way to turn. That is the time to have enough
faith to jump into our father's arms. That is the time to get out of the
boat and walk toward the Lord. When Peter started to sink, he didn't
try to swim back to the boat or call the other disciples to help, no he
called to Jesus, Lord save me.
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Yours in Christ,
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Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
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Spiritual Director
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