Today’s liturgy is centered on the theme of God’s presence—the God who passes by—and on our ability to recognize Him. The Gospel is a continuation of last Sunday’s account of the feeding of the five thousand. After feeding the crowd, Jesus sends the people away and has the disciples go ahead of him in a boat, while he stays behind to pray. During the night, as the disciples struggle against the headwind and the waves, Jesus comes toward them walking on the sea, but they fail to recognize him.
Christ, passing by them, is mistaken for a ghost. Walking majestically on the waves, Jesus demonstrates his sovereignty over the forces of nature. To the frightened disciples, he says: “Don’t worry, it’s me—don’t be afraid!””. He even invites Peter to share in his power by calling on him to walk on the water.
The disciples“ experience is not so different from our own. Just a few hours earlier, they had witnessed the joy and abundance of the miracle of the loaves. Yet now the boat is “tossed about by the waves” and battling the wind.
How often does this happen in our own lives as well? One moment we experience God’s blessings and closeness; the next, we find ourselves overwhelmed by difficulties, anxieties, disappointments, or suffering. The boat of our life seems on the verge of sinking. In those moments, we struggle to recognize Christ as He comes toward us. We mistake His presence for something else.
The first reading offers us a profound lesson on how to recognize God’s presence. Elijah is commanded: “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord”. A hurricane came, then an earthquake, then a fire, but God was not in any of them. Finally, Elijah heard the whisper of a gentle breeze. Then he covered his face, because he recognized that the Lord was present.
The God who revealed himself in the storm is the same God who reveals himself in a gentle whisper. We run the risk of thinking that God’s presence is found only in the extraordinary, but God also allows himself to be found in silence.
Silence is needed to hear a whisper. We find God in silence. God makes Himself present when we set aside the distractions, the winds, and the waves of digital culture that wear us down physically and mentally.
Like Peter, we should pray constantly: “Lord, if it's you…”. And the Lord will grant us the grace to recognize Him, to trust Him, and to move toward Him even in the midst of storms.
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