St. Norbert's Church - Sunday Reflections

And you? Are you like Saint Peter? Most of us are! We are enthused at times by the Lord Jesus - and then we get frightened. We want to walk with Christ and act as He does and did - and then when we find ourselves doing the impossible, we realize that we cannot do the impossible and our faith fails.

Today the readings begin with the First Book of Kings. Elijah wants to see the Lord. Ah, how we all long to see the Lord and yet look in the wrong places! Not in some very special experience do we find the Lord, but in the small and the ordinary experiences of our daily life. We have to learn that the daily ordinariness of life is our cave and that the tiny whispering sound is always with us. We are invited to open our ears now and to stand in the entrance of our cave, our daily life which seems so ordinary.

The second reading is from the Letter to the Romans. It also gives us a deep secret of the spiritual life: love for our own people and willingness to give our life for them. Yes, we can acknowledge the role of our Jewish ancestors in the faith and give thanks for them. We also much acknowledge all those who in our own lives have been our ancestors in the faith, and give thanks for them. Our ancestors in the faith are no more perfect than we are, but they are our ancestors in the faith who have handed on faith to us.

Sometimes our ancestors in the faith are our physical ancestors and sometimes they are only spiritual ancestors. Yet we must come to see all the ways in which others have brought us to life and have handed on faith to us. Sometimes our ancestors are people whom we can touch and identify easily. At other times, our ancestors are people whose books we have read, whose lives and deeds have given us life and whose relationship to us is much less direct. We all have a rich heritage of ancestors!

The Gospel of Matthew today opens us to the mystery of prayer and of presence. First we note that Jesus is not afraid of going apart from others for the sake of prayer and of being present to His Father. We also must learn the necessity of going apart to pray, of being alone with God, of taking time for this longing and communion with the Father.

When the needs of others call out to us, however, we must try to be present to them and respond to that need. Jesus sees the needs of His followers in their ordinary existence. Jesus is not out looking for others. Evangelization is being present in the ordinary and recognizing the deep need of others for the divine in their ordinary life. There are always storms and there is always need. It is not something extraordinary!

Finally, we see the profound need to act in faith and not rely on our human strength alone. The challenge is to keep our eyes and our hearts fixed only on Jesus and not on what is happening around us. We are aware of what is happening around us always, we cannot pretend otherwise. But in the heart of our daily existence, we can keep our hearts set only on the Lord. In that choice, Christ can become our power and our strength. Christ is the power and strength of love and of concern for others.

Come, let us walk on the water in the storms of life because our feet are held fast in the way of Christ.