What Is the Necessary Focus?

	Fr. Roger Vermalen Karban

The readings for Sunday, August 11, 2002, the Nineteenth Sunday of the Year, are I Kings 19:9a, 11-13a, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:22-33.

The I Kings author makes two points in today’s passage. The first is obvious; we see the second only if we read more than our few liturgical verses.

Everyone notices how Yahweh communicates with Elijah. Though the prophet experiences a strong, heavy wind, an earthquake and fire, Yahweh’s in none of them. Only when he hears a “tiny whispering sound” does Elijah know Yahweh is near. The sacred author is telling us that if we’re to surface God present in our lives, we must listen carefully to everything going on around us, even the most subtle things.

But there’s an even more important lesson in this pericope. When (after our three-verse reading) God finally speaks to the prophet, he demands to know why he’s there, on Mt. Sinai. When Elijah answers, Yahweh informs him that he shouldn’t be there. He’s supposed to be up in Damascus — hundreds of miles north — helping to overthrow Jezebel, Israel’s wicked queen.

Elijah’s being in the wrong place is more than just an ordinary, human mistake. When we read the lines preceding our liturgical selection, we realize Yahweh actively helped Elijah during his wilderness journey to Mt. Sinai; helped him go the wrong direction.
This point becomes more significant when we hear today’s other readings.

Paul reflects that his own people are also going in the wrong direction, even though “. . . 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 Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever . . . .”

They certainly didn’t achieve these benefits on their own. As difficult as it might be to understand, Yahweh actually helped many Jews go down a centuries-long path that eventually stopped them from accepting Jesus as God’s son. Could our emphasis on God’s help in the past be why we don’t recognize God’s will in the present?

In some sense, Matthew’s version of Jesus walking across the sea addresses the same problem. It’s the only account in which Peter steps out of the boat and walks to Jesus. “But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’

“Jesus stretched out his hand, caught Peter, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ ”

What makes this narrative and Jesus’ remark about Peter’s little faith so significant is that, in just two chapters, Matthew’s Jesus will single out Peter’s faith as the rock on which he’ll build his church. This early Christian leader certainly isn’t demonstrating that kind of faith here.
That’s precisely the point Matthew makes. The only faith Jesus expects of his followers is a faith which concentrates solely on him. If his disciples break their concentration, even for a moment, and begin to notice “the strong wind” around them, they begin to sink.

It’s providential that these three readings occur while the clergy sexual abuse scandal is fresh in our minds. Almost every Catholic theologian, Scripture scholar, historian and intellectual has interpreted the scandal as a sign that we need to change some of our church structures. Even the prestigious Catholic Theological Society of America issued a statement calling for structural change.

We simply brushed such thoughts aside in the past, confident that Jesus helped us create the church structures which we presently have. If he didn’t approve, why did he permit his church to develop them?
After listening carefully to today’s readings, we might have to re-evaluate that centuries-old argument. After all, it wasn’t when Peter broke his concentration on church structures that he began to sink.