1st book of Kings 19,9a.11-13a. At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave, where he took shelter. "Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by." A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD--but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake--but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire--but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Psalms 85(84).
I will hear what God proclaims; the LORD –for he proclaims peace to his people. Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him, glory dwelling in our land.
Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven.
The LORD himself will give his benefits; our land shall yield its increase. Justice shall walk before him, and salvation, along the way of his steps.
Letter to the Romans 9,1-5. Brothers and Sisters: I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience joins with the holy Spirit in bearing me witness that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kin according to the flesh. They are Israelites; theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; theirs the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 14,22-33. After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, 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 toward 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 toward 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."
POPE FRANCIS ANGELUS 13 August 2023 Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
Today’s Gospel recounts a particular prodigious deed of Jesus: He walks at night on the waters of the lake of Galilee toward his disciples who are crossing the lake in a boat (cf. Mt 14:22-33). The question is: Why did Jesus do this? Like a show? No! But why? Maybe because of an urgent, unforeseeable need to help his disciples who were blocked by a headwind? No, because he himself had planned everything, he had made them depart that evening. The text even says he “made them” (cf. v. 22). Maybe he did it to give them a demonstration of his greatness and power? But this is not like him, who is such a humble person. So, why did he do it? Why did he want to walk on the waters?
Behind the walking on water there is a message that is not evident, a message we need to grasp. In fact, at that time, great expanses of water were held to be the haunts of evil powers that man was not able to master. Particularly when storms made them turbulent, these abysses were symbols of chaos and recalled the darkness of the underworld. Now, the disciples found themselves in the middle of the lake when it was dark. They are afraid of sinking, of being sucked in by evil. And here comes Jesus who walks on the water, that is, over the powers of evil. He walks over the forces of evil and says to his disciples: “Take heart, it is I; have no fear” (v. 27). This is the message Jesus gives us. This is the meaning of the sign: the powers of evil that frighten us, that we cannot master, immediately take on smaller proportions with Jesus. By walking on the waters, He wants to say, “Do not be afraid. I put your enemies under my feet” — a beautiful message — I put your enemies under my feet — not people! — not that type of enemy, but death, sin, the devil. These are the enemies of the people, our enemies. And Jesus tramples on these enemies for us.
Today, Christ repeats to each of us, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear!” Take heart because I am here, because you are no longer alone on the turbulent waters of life. And so, what should we do when we find ourselves on the open sea at the mercy of headwinds? What should we do when we face the fear of the open sea, when we see only darkness and we feel we are going under? We need to do two things that the disciples do in the Gospel. What do the disciples do? They call on and welcome Jesus. At the worst moments, in the darkest of storms, call on Jesus and welcome Jesus.
The disciples call on Jesus: Peter walks a little on the waters towards Jesus, but then gets frightened. He sinks and then cries out: “Lord, save me!” (v. 30). Invoke Jesus, call on Jesus. This prayer is beautiful. It expresses the certainty that the Lord can save us, that he conquers our evil and our fears. I invite you to repeat it now all together. Three times together: Lord, save me! Lord, save me! Lord, save me!
And then the disciples welcome. First they call on, then they welcome Jesus into the boat. The text says that as soon as he got into the boat, “the wind ceased” (v. 32). The Lord knows that the boat of our life, as well as the boat of the Church, is threatened by headwinds, and that the sea on which we sail is often turbulent. He does not spare us the hard work of sailing; rather — the Gospel emphasizes — he pushes his disciples to depart. He invites us to face difficulties so they too might become salvific places , so Jesus can conquer them, so they become opportunities to meet him. In fact, in our moments of darkness, he comes to meet us, asking to be welcomed like that night on the lake.
-->So, let us ask ourselves: How do I react when I am afraid, in difficulties? Do I go ahead alone, with my own strength, or do I call on the Lord with trust? And what is my faith like? Do I believe that Christ is stronger than the adversarial waves and winds? But above all: Am I sailing with him? Do I welcome him? Do I make room for him in the boat of my life — never alone, always with Jesus? Do I hand the helm over to Jesus?
In the dark crossings, may Mary, the mother of Jesus, Star of the Sea, help us to seek the light of Jesus.
ANGELUS 7 August 2011 Dear Brothers and Sisters, In this Sunday’s Gospel we find Jesus who, after withdrawing to the mountain, prays throughout the night. The Lord, having distanced himself from the people and the disciples, manifests his communion with the Father and the need to pray in solitude, far from the commotion of the world.
This distancing, however, must not be seen as a lack of interest in individuals or trust in the Apostles. On the contrary, Matthew recounts, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat, “and go before him to the other side” (Mt 14:22), where he would see them again. In the meantime the boat “was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them” (v. 24). And so in the fourth watch of the night [Jesus] came to them, walking on the sea” (v. 25); the disciples were terrified, mistaking him for a ghost and “cried out for fear” (v. 26). They did not recognize him, they did not realize that it was the Lord.
Nonetheless Jesus reassured them: “Take heart, it is I; have no fear” (v. 27). This is an episode from which the Fathers of the Church drew a great wealth of meaning. The sea symbolizes this life and the instability of the visible world; the storm points to every kind of trial or difficulty that oppresses human beings. The boat, instead, represents the Church, built by Christ and steered by the Apostles.
Jesus wanted to teach the disciples to bear life’s adversities courageously, trusting in God, in the One who revealed himself to the Prophet Elijah on Mount Horeb “in a still small voice” [the whispering of a gentle breeze] (1 Kings 19:12).
The passage then continues with the action of the Apostle Peter, who, moved by an impulse of love for the Teacher, asks him to bid him to come to him, walking on the water. “But when he saw the wind [was strong], [Peter] was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” (Mt 14:30).
St Augustine, imagining that he was addressing the Apostle, commented: the Lord “leaned down and took you by the hand. With your strength alone you cannot rise. Hold tight to the hand of the One who reaches down to you” (En. in Ps. 95, 7: PL 36, 1233), and he did not say this to Peter alone but also to us.
Peter walks on the water, not by his own effort but rather through divine grace in which he believes. And when he was smitten by doubt, when he no longer fixed his gaze on Jesus but was frightened by the gale, when he failed to put full trust in the Teacher’s words, it means that he was interiorly distancing himself from the Teacher and so risked sinking in the sea of life.
So it is also for us: if we look only at ourselves we become dependent on the winds and can no longer pass through storms on the waters of life. The great thinker Romano Guardini wrote that the Lord “is always close, being at the root of our being. Yet we must experience our relationship with God between the poles of distance and closeness. By closeness we are strengthened, by distance we are put to the test” (Accettare se stessi, Brescia 1992, 71).
Dear friends, the experience of the Prophet Elijah who heard God passing and the troubled faith of the Apostle Peter enable us to understand that even before we seek the Lord or invoke him, it is he himself who comes to meet us, who lowers Heaven to stretch out his hand to us and raise us to his heights; all he expects of us is that we trust totally in him, that we really take hold of his hand.
Let us call on the Virgin Mary, model of total entrustment to God, so that amidst the plethora of anxieties, problems and difficulties which churn up the sea of our life, may our hearts resonate with the reassuring words of Jesus who also says to us “Take heart, it is I; have no fear!”; and may our faith in him grow.
FAUSTI – "Thou of little faith, why did you doubt?" Jesus asks Peter, called by him to walk on the waters, like Him and with Him. This tale shows the journey from disturbance to the courage of the faith, however harassed by the doubt and by the fall that in the experience of salvation comes to its fullness. The doubt, halfway between incredulity and faith, is the needed passage for everyone. For a conscious and adult faith, it is necessary that the unbeliever must doubt of his unbelieving and that the believer doubts of his believing . A blind dogmatism precludes the access to the truth. However, anyone when goes down, opens himself up to the invocation of salvation, beyond what it believes or does not believe. Peter represents each of us and the whole Church. When we turn our eyes to the Lord and to His vocation , we have confidence and are able to go on when we look our difficulties, we are afraid and we sink. After the gift of bread, Jesus climbs alone on the mountain to pray. The disciples descend, by themselves, to the sea to row. After the night of the bread a new day comes- the one of the alone disciples on the boat - where Jesus is present in another way, through His Word ordering to make His own path, dealing the same night that He has won. . We stand in the night, on the contrary wind, suspended on the agitated abyss that wants to swallow us, struggling unnecessarily to reach the other shore. It is Church's condition, called to face His own path after His Ascension on Mount. Wrapped in darkness, suspended between sky and abyss, the disciples are far from the starting point and from the arrival point. The situation is anguishing . Not to be swallowed up by the abyss is the impossible dream of every man, overcoming the reality that he knows well, done of night, loneliness, distance, fatigue, torment, anguish, terror and sinking. Walking on the sea is the theme of the piece. It is what disciple is called to do, on the Word of His Lord. They who are played by fear mistake their fantasies for reality and reality for fantasy. The disciples think that the Living One between them is a ghost, a dead man. It is the reproach of Paul to those of Corinth when he says that their Eucharist is not a eating the Supper of the Lord , but an eating their condemnation, because they make the opposite of what they celebrate. (1 Cor 11: 17-34). Fear is scarsity of faith. Faith is instead the courage of believing and daring the impossible, impossible to man, but not to God. He who walks on the waters is not a ghost but "I am", Jesus in person. "I-am" refers to the revelation of the God of the Exodus. Salvation through water is not an illusion. It is the fear that makes them perceive the reality of God an illusion. "Come !" It's the definitive vocation. On His Word, we are called by Him to walk as Him and with Him on the abyss. In obedience to Him, Peter manages to do as He did. The opposite spirit frightens Peter. If he looks Jesus , he walks, if he looks his fears, he sinks. The "tense arm" indicates the intervention of God, which grabs and saves from the great waters him who invokes Him. There is faith, but little, insufficient after hard tests like this. But there is always the cry in his heart: "Lord, save me!" It is the inalienable root of faith. The resulting experience of salvation leads to peace and to Lord's acknowledgment. The journey of trust and recognition lasts forever. Salvation leads to worship to the kiss of the Lord, aim of the Gospel.
-->The Church, represented by the boat of the disciples, on Lord's indication, proceeds along the way, also encountering difficulties and storms, and can cross them by listening to His Voice. In the storm He is beside us, even if we do not see Him and do not recognize Him, but if we listen to Him, He comforts us: "Courage! It is I! Don't be afraid!" Listen made of Silence and faith! Elijah listens and discovers his mission. Peter listens to Him and wants to reach Him on the waters, but his faith still has doubts and uncertainties. He asks for help and gets it! We, listening to Paul who, in the Letter to the Hebrews, after having enumerated the profound motivation of our ancestors in the faith and the positive outcome of their undertakings (Heb 11), invites us: "Let us run with perseverance in the race that stands before us, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, author and perfector of the faith..." (Heb 12), we will be able to enter into His plan for us! Never think of letting Him enter into our projects and our expectations..... We ask Him to be able to listen to His wishes!
1st book of Kings
RispondiElimina19,9a.11-13a.
At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave, where he took shelter.
"Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by." A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD--but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake--but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake there was fire--but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.
When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Psalms 85(84).
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD –for he proclaims peace to his people.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and salvation, along the way of his steps.
Letter to
the Romans 9,1-5.
Brothers and Sisters: I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience joins with the holy Spirit in bearing me witness
that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kin according to the flesh.
They are Israelites; theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;
theirs the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Matthew
14,22-33.
After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, 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 toward 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 toward 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."
THE WORDS OF THE POPES
RispondiEliminaPOPE FRANCIS ANGELUS 13 August 2023
Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
Today’s Gospel recounts a particular prodigious deed of Jesus: He walks at night on the waters of the lake of Galilee toward his disciples who are crossing the lake in a boat (cf. Mt 14:22-33). The question is: Why did Jesus do this? Like a show? No! But why? Maybe because of an urgent, unforeseeable need to help his disciples who were blocked by a headwind? No, because he himself had planned everything, he had made them depart that evening. The text even says he “made them” (cf. v. 22). Maybe he did it to give them a demonstration of his greatness and power? But this is not like him, who is such a humble person. So, why did he do it? Why did he want to walk on the waters?
Behind the walking on water there is a message that is not evident, a message we need to grasp. In fact, at that time, great expanses of water were held to be the haunts of evil powers that man was not able to master. Particularly when storms made them turbulent, these abysses were symbols of chaos and recalled the darkness of the underworld. Now, the disciples found themselves in the middle of the lake when it was dark. They are afraid of sinking, of being sucked in by evil. And here comes Jesus who walks on the water, that is, over the powers of evil. He walks over the forces of evil and says to his disciples: “Take heart, it is I; have no fear” (v. 27). This is the message Jesus gives us. This is the meaning of the sign: the powers of evil that frighten us, that we cannot master, immediately take on smaller proportions with Jesus. By walking on the waters, He wants to say, “Do not be afraid. I put your enemies under my feet” — a beautiful message — I put your enemies under my feet — not people! — not that type of enemy, but death, sin, the devil. These are the enemies of the people, our enemies. And Jesus tramples on these enemies for us.
Today, Christ repeats to each of us, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear!” Take heart because I am here, because you are no longer alone on the turbulent waters of life. And so, what should we do when we find ourselves on the open sea at the mercy of headwinds? What should we do when we face the fear of the open sea, when we see only darkness and we feel we are going under? We need to do two things that the disciples do in the Gospel. What do the disciples do? They call on and welcome Jesus. At the worst moments, in the darkest of storms, call on Jesus and welcome Jesus.
The disciples call on Jesus: Peter walks a little on the waters towards Jesus, but then gets frightened. He sinks and then cries out: “Lord, save me!” (v. 30). Invoke Jesus, call on Jesus. This prayer is beautiful. It expresses the certainty that the Lord can save us, that he conquers our evil and our fears. I invite you to repeat it now all together. Three times together: Lord, save me! Lord, save me! Lord, save me!
And then the disciples welcome. First they call on, then they welcome Jesus into the boat. The text says that as soon as he got into the boat, “the wind ceased” (v. 32). The Lord knows that the boat of our life, as well as the boat of the Church, is threatened by headwinds, and that the sea on which we sail is often turbulent. He does not spare us the hard work of sailing; rather — the Gospel emphasizes — he pushes his disciples to depart. He invites us to face difficulties so they too might become salvific places , so Jesus can conquer them, so they become opportunities to meet him. In fact, in our moments of darkness, he comes to meet us, asking to be welcomed like that night on the lake.
-->So, let us ask ourselves: How do I react when I am afraid, in difficulties? Do I go ahead alone, with my own strength, or do I call on the Lord with trust? And what is my faith like? Do I believe that Christ is stronger than the adversarial waves and winds? But above all: Am I sailing with him? Do I welcome him? Do I make room for him in the boat of my life — never alone, always with Jesus? Do I hand the helm over to Jesus?
EliminaIn the dark crossings, may Mary, the mother of Jesus, Star of the Sea, help us to seek the light of Jesus.
BENEDICT XVI
EliminaANGELUS 7 August 2011
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In this Sunday’s Gospel we find Jesus who, after withdrawing to the mountain, prays throughout the night. The Lord, having distanced himself from the people and the disciples, manifests his communion with the Father and the need to pray in solitude, far from the commotion of the world.
This distancing, however, must not be seen as a lack of interest in individuals or trust in the Apostles. On the contrary, Matthew recounts, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat, “and go before him to the other side” (Mt 14:22), where he would see them again. In the meantime the boat “was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them” (v. 24). And so in the fourth watch of the night [Jesus] came to them, walking on the sea” (v. 25); the disciples were terrified, mistaking him for a ghost and “cried out for fear” (v. 26). They did not recognize him, they did not realize that it was the Lord.
Nonetheless Jesus reassured them: “Take heart, it is I; have no fear” (v. 27). This is an episode from which the Fathers of the Church drew a great wealth of meaning. The sea symbolizes this life and the instability of the visible world; the storm points to every kind of trial or difficulty that oppresses human beings. The boat, instead, represents the Church, built by Christ and steered by the Apostles.
Jesus wanted to teach the disciples to bear life’s adversities courageously, trusting in God, in the One who revealed himself to the Prophet Elijah on Mount Horeb “in a still small voice” [the whispering of a gentle breeze] (1 Kings 19:12).
The passage then continues with the action of the Apostle Peter, who, moved by an impulse of love for the Teacher, asks him to bid him to come to him, walking on the water. “But when he saw the wind [was strong], [Peter] was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” (Mt 14:30).
St Augustine, imagining that he was addressing the Apostle, commented: the Lord “leaned down and took you by the hand. With your strength alone you cannot rise. Hold tight to the hand of the One who reaches down to you” (En. in Ps. 95, 7: PL 36, 1233), and he did not say this to Peter alone but also to us.
Peter walks on the water, not by his own effort but rather through divine grace in which he believes. And when he was smitten by doubt, when he no longer fixed his gaze on Jesus but was frightened by the gale, when he failed to put full trust in the Teacher’s words, it means that he was interiorly distancing himself from the Teacher and so risked sinking in the sea of life.
So it is also for us: if we look only at ourselves we become dependent on the winds and can no longer pass through storms on the waters of life. The great thinker Romano Guardini wrote that the Lord “is always close, being at the root of our being. Yet we must experience our relationship with God between the poles of distance and closeness. By closeness we are strengthened, by distance we are put to the test” (Accettare se stessi, Brescia 1992, 71).
Dear friends, the experience of the Prophet Elijah who heard God passing and the troubled faith of the Apostle Peter enable us to understand that even before we seek the Lord or invoke him, it is he himself who comes to meet us, who lowers Heaven to stretch out his hand to us and raise us to his heights; all he expects of us is that we trust totally in him, that we really take hold of his hand.
Let us call on the Virgin Mary, model of total entrustment to God, so that amidst the plethora of anxieties, problems and difficulties which churn up the sea of our life, may our hearts resonate with the reassuring words of Jesus who also says to us “Take heart, it is I; have no fear!”; and may our faith in him grow.
FAUSTI – "Thou of little faith, why did you doubt?" Jesus asks Peter, called by him to walk on the waters, like Him and with Him.
RispondiEliminaThis tale shows the journey from disturbance to the courage of the faith, however harassed by the doubt and by the fall that in the experience of salvation comes to its fullness.
The doubt, halfway between incredulity and faith, is the needed passage for everyone.
For a conscious and adult faith, it is necessary that the unbeliever must doubt of his unbelieving and that the believer doubts of his believing . A blind dogmatism precludes the access to the truth.
However, anyone when goes down,
opens himself up to the invocation of salvation, beyond what it believes or does not believe.
Peter represents each of us and the whole Church. When we turn our eyes to the Lord and to His vocation , we have confidence and are able to go on when we look our difficulties, we are afraid and we sink.
After the gift of bread, Jesus climbs alone on the mountain to pray.
The disciples descend, by themselves, to the sea to row.
After the night of the bread a new day comes- the one of the alone disciples on the boat - where Jesus is present in another way, through His Word ordering to make His own path, dealing the same night that He has won. .
We stand in the night, on the contrary wind, suspended on the agitated abyss that wants to swallow us, struggling unnecessarily to reach the other shore.
It is Church's condition, called to face His own path after His Ascension on Mount.
Wrapped in darkness, suspended between sky and abyss, the disciples are far from the starting point and from the arrival point. The situation is anguishing .
Not to be swallowed up by the abyss is the impossible dream of every man, overcoming the reality that he knows well, done of night, loneliness, distance, fatigue, torment, anguish, terror and sinking.
Walking on the sea is the theme of the piece.
It is what disciple is called to do, on the Word of His Lord.
They who are played by fear mistake their fantasies for reality and reality for fantasy.
The disciples think that the Living One between them is a ghost, a dead man.
It is the reproach of Paul to those of Corinth when he says that their Eucharist is not a eating the Supper of the Lord , but an eating their condemnation, because they make the opposite of what they celebrate. (1 Cor 11: 17-34).
Fear is scarsity of faith.
Faith is instead the courage of believing and daring the impossible, impossible to man, but not to God.
He who walks on the waters is not a ghost but "I am", Jesus in person.
"I-am" refers to the revelation of the God of the Exodus. Salvation through water is not an illusion. It is the fear that makes them perceive the reality of God an illusion.
"Come !" It's the definitive vocation. On His Word, we are called by Him to walk as Him and with Him on the abyss. In obedience to Him, Peter manages to do as He did.
The opposite spirit frightens Peter.
If he looks Jesus , he walks, if he looks his fears, he sinks.
The "tense arm" indicates the intervention of God, which grabs and saves from the great waters him who invokes Him.
There is faith, but little, insufficient after hard tests like this.
But there is always the cry in his heart: "Lord, save me!"
It is the inalienable root of faith.
The resulting experience of salvation leads to peace and to Lord's acknowledgment.
The journey of trust and recognition lasts forever.
Salvation leads to worship to the kiss of the Lord, aim of the Gospel.
-->The Church, represented by the boat of the disciples, on Lord's indication, proceeds along the way, also encountering difficulties and storms, and can cross them by listening to His Voice.
EliminaIn the storm He is beside us, even if we do not see Him and do not recognize Him, but if we listen to Him, He comforts us: "Courage! It is I! Don't be afraid!"
Listen made of Silence and faith!
Elijah listens and discovers his mission.
Peter listens to Him and wants to reach Him on the waters, but his faith still has doubts and uncertainties. He asks for help and gets it!
We, listening to Paul who, in the Letter to the Hebrews, after having enumerated the profound motivation of our ancestors in the faith and the positive outcome of their undertakings (Heb 11), invites us: "Let us run with perseverance in the race that stands before us, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, author and perfector of the faith..." (Heb 12), we will be able to enter into His plan for us!
Never think of letting Him enter into our projects and our expectations..... We ask Him to be able to listen to His wishes!