A Cycle – 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 26

Mt. 14: 13-21

Years ago, a book was published by Harold Kushner was written to help us overcome the pain when terrible things happen to believers in God’s love.  The entire premise of the book was to remind us Jesus said we would have was, famines, floods, earthquakes, illness, and death. Reminding us we live in a fallen world where our belief in God can be easily shaken when tragic things happen to us.  It is in those moments our humanity seeks an answer because it challenges our faith in a loving God.  Faith in God does not prevent us from asking the question why.  We ask where God is when we need Him; what have I done to deserve this. 

When we experience a devastating blow, we seek understanding. Theological answers do not comfort or satisfy us, nor neither does it ease our pain and doubt. At the heart of our doubt is the question is “where is God.” We believe in our constant faithfulness we have acquired a shield of protection promised to us by God. He loves us therefore He will never abandon us.  We respond to disasters like Martha and cry out “Lord if you had been here when we cried out to you, this would not have happened. Why have you forsaken me, will I ever feel normal again?    

We believe the stories in the scriptures are not there to give us a history lesson. We believe they reveal God’s response to pain and suffering, sickness and death, sinfulness, and forgiveness.  They encourage us to cry out to God and believe He will respond to our cries.  The exodus stories are classic examples of God showing up when they doubted Him. When everything seemed futile and unbearable they doubted God was with them. We believe the miracles performed by Jesus in the scriptures are still being done today. But they are done by the very spiritual and holy individual destined for sainthood.  But if you pay attention there are miracles of healing today through the prayers of ordinary men and women who believe. 

Here at Basil’s, we have a prayer ministry after our mass and story after story of God intervening in people’s lives.  One lady came fourth last week to thank the prayer team who prayed for her fifteen year old brain cysts to shrink and disappear.  She had a visit scheduled with her doctor two weeks later. For the first time in fifteen years that cyst has begun to shrink.  He was amazed and expressed his confusion because it shrunk.  God’s power changing lives.  But believing demands more from us than expecting God will show up. It demands a trust that believes even when it seems nothing is happening; God is silent and yet we must be satisfied with the knowledge that He will give us strength for another day. In her case it was fifteen years of believing God does answer prayers.   

God knows our human nature is weak and our first response to any disaster is panic and doubt. We question why this is happening to us.  We depend on our faithfulness to protect us from the chaos of life.  When disaster hits us, we are stunned, anxious and afraid. Instead of knowing we are in God’s hand, we feel isolated and cannot see how things will change.  The answer to overcoming tribulation begins with an absolute trust in God’s goodness.  Trust cannot grow within us if we fail to step into the storm and trust in Jesus.  In today’s gospel we see how a lack of belief causes us to doubt and depend on ourselves to avoid the problems facing us.  

We also see how those situations can challenge us to depend on faith not ourselves.  Jesus in today’s gospel shows us how any challenge we face can weaken and destroy our belief He can conquer all things.  The situation was impossible, people were hungry and the place was isolated.  Jesus seems to be unconcerned about the impending disaster when He challenges them to “feed them yourselves.” 

They had already assessed the situation, and it was going to end in disaster. Yet Jesus continued to challenge them by asking them, “what they had.”  That question is a challenge to them and us to never doubt in the face of an impossible situation.  We look at the storm, and it overwhelms us.  We look inward and can only see what we are lacking.  We fail to see what we need at that moment is faith in God’s promises. The storm blinds us and we want it to stop. In the middle of pain, faith demands we trust God even when He is silent.   

Today’s reedings challenge us to look inward and discover how much we believe.  That day the disciple’s faith was lacking but they embraced the challenge when it was demanded of them. Today our faith is being challenged, and we should take the time to answer that question. The readings tell us we need to increase our faith.  We need an absolute trust in God’s goodness and His promise to never abandon us.  Do we know that God is with us despite the storm? Or is all our focus on the pain, chaos, loss. Do we believe God does not care what we are going through?

It took faith for the disciples to take a handful of food and believe there will be enough to feed thousands. Can you imagine what was going on in their minds when Jesus blessed five loaves and told them it would be enough for five thousand. We have failed to understand the reality of God’s plan to work good out of horrific events.   

What God promised us is summarized by Paul in today’s second reading.  He reminds us how our initial response during times of crisis will be to seek relief.  Paul reminds how those moments of “anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword prevent u from seeing the good God can work.  We fail to see how those negative emotions are used by Satan to destroy our belief God’s provident care.  The pain and fear we feel is real, the emptiness is real and it is hard to move forward in faith when all we feel is despair.  The death of a child, the death oof a spouse or a family member is absolutely heart breaking. The feeling of emptiness and loss is real, and it is hard to see how life can ever be the same.   

We know the pain of divorce, death, unfaithfulness of a spouse, the loss of a job, financial ruin, cancer, failing eyesight, and issues with aging are challenging to overcome. It is in those moments our belief in a loving God is challenged.    

Yet doubt in God during those moments is the original sin that still plagues us. The pain we experience is real and doubt is also real.  Life is unpredictable and yet we live as if nothing will happen to us. We live our lives ignoring the worse and hoping for the best, knowing life can change in a moment.  Will we allow our pain and despair to cause us to allow the prince of darkness to cause us to place a barrier between us and God? Will we ask God why is this happening to us? Will we trust Godis with us? Or will we be strong in our faith and say we know God is with us even when He is silent.

 Will we like Paull say nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Will we be overcomers because of our faith in God’s promises does not depend on what we see but on what we believe? Or will we allow those moments when we cannot feel at peace to separate us from God?  Will we stand firm and proclaim to everyone that God is Lord and Savior and in Him we have life.  Will we during one of those moments say: nothing can cause my belief in God to diminish, because our God is always with us.  Can we acknowledge like Paul that we are “. convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”