But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ (Matt 14:27)
(Year A: The Ninth Sunday after
Trinity, 9th August, 2020)
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READINGS (COI & paired as between the Gospel and the Old
Testament readings)
(See, also, Mark
6:45-52 and John 6:16-21)
Many of us recently had the experience
of being alone and being surrounded by relative silence: less talk, much less
traffic for a while and much less travel. Somehow, the silence became
noticeable to me in birdsong, wind and in the sound of the sea near me. I am blessed
to be living some 100 metres from the sea as well as just under 2,000 metres
from an award-winning pollinator park That was just within the lockdown travel
limit for a time by foot or bicycle.
Lockdown and shielding seemed like a
mixed blessing. Yet, immense suffering was present among those who were sick or
afraid of being sick.
Gone were the occasions to meet up and
stay with loved ones as well as opportunities to travel around this lovely
island. Here was the silence and solitude of being in the presence of something
greater – much greater – than me. How ironic that at the very time where the
real eucharistic presence of Jesus seemed far away God came to meet me and I
hope you and many others in the strange, worrying and liberating silence of
‘lockdown’. It was for us, in Ireland, an Irish lockdown – plenty of advice,
much good will, lots of compliance but with much bending of the rules here and
there even by the self-righteous! Somehow an Irish breakdown was just about
bearable through a mixture of good neighbourliness, the wonders of modern
technology and Irish pragmatism. As I write it looks as if a second lockdown –
nationally – might very well be on its way.
In today’s first reading we hear of
Elijah meeting God on mount Horeb – not in scenes of thunder, noise and
commotion but in the ‘sound of sheer silence’ (1 Kings 19:12) according to one
English language translation (NRSVA). Other versions have ‘a still small voice’
(RSV) or ‘a gentle breeze’ (CEV) while the Wycliffe Bible has ‘And after the
fire there was a hissing of the wind, as if softly breathing; and the Lord
was there. Many slight variations on the
same text are available on the excellent resource of Biblegateway.com and the phone
app youversion.com. The message that
emerges is that God speaks gently and almost silently. We can hear if we are still and at rest. The
idea of a whisper or a gentle breeze evokes memories of a time when the Holy
Spirit spoke to us in a delightful way.
However, hearing the Lord ‘speak’ to us
is more than just fanciful imagination while we still the body and the mind.
The writer of this Sunday’s selection from Psalm 85 declares:
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. (v.12).
To hear what God has to say to us we
must be ready to ‘turn to him’ in our hearts. In other words, we must be ready
to do his will. Such a disposition is not easy because we prefer to hear what
we want to hear from sources that suit our agenda and hang-ups. Listening with
a ready ear and an open heart and with a will ready to submit is what matters.
Otherwise, we risk twisting scripture (and tradition which birthed scripture)
to our own liking and tastes. It may seem impossible to approach the Word of
God in such a manner of complete abandonment but we are encouraged by what St
Paul writes in today’s selection from the Letter to the Romans:
‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’ (10:8)
And what does this Word that is so near
to us on our lips and in our hearts say this Sunday 9th August? It says:
‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ (Matthew 14:27)
When all is said and done through
crisis, lockdowns and tribulation we are brought back to a place of silence and
gentle breathing. God-who-is-love whispers to us by our first name ‘take heart’
and ‘do not be afraid’. Do not be afraid.
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