Why did you doubt?

It was Peter who answered. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.’ ‘Come’ said Jesus. Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water, but as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took fright and began to sink. ‘Lord! Save me!’ he cried. Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. ‘Man of little faith,’ he said ‘why did you doubt?’ And as they got into the boat the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down before him and said, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God.’

Matthew 14: 28 – 33

I don’t possess the bluster that others do. If it is a difficult conversation that needs to be had, I’m not sure who it is more difficult for – me or the conversee. However well I prepare, as soon as the force of the moment, the encounter approaches, I do, in all honesty, begin to sink. I do have other strengths that will pull me through. I’m not sure I presume faith greater than that Peter’s, but I have been long convinced that the Lord’s hand will indeed save me.

Commentators view the heavy seas that struck Lake Galilee and the great head wind that faced the disciples’ boat as the chaos and turmoil of the early church - after the destruction of Jerusalem c 70 AD. The transition from a Jewish messianic movement to an independent religion was anything but easy. Peter’s tentativeness in stepping out of the boat (the church), his doubt, his panic and flailing in the Galilean water and his salvation by Jesus’ intervention is the experience of that early community as it struggled to find its place outside Judaism, but without entirely resolving the tensions between their adherence to the Mosaic law and the increasing demands of the Gentile converts. The key was the same then and the same now. It is indeed faith.

Since the Romanisation of the Church, the tension between law and culture has never been satisfactory. The Jesuit missionary efforts to Christianise the east met with rebuff after rebuff, and various liturgical innovations are often seen as aberrations (smoking ceremonies in Australia, kava ceremonies on the Pacific islands, the Maori Powhiri) despite the apparent generosity of Sacrosanctum concilium from Vatican II and Varietates legitimae (the 4^th instruction on inculturation and the Roman liturgy).

There is no doubt that the turmoil experienced by the Matthaen community is fresh and naked today: the various commissions and inquiries into sexual abuse in the church, the empty pews, the paucity of vocations, the tendency to the right, the rise and rise of Islam.

If we choose to meet the turmoil head on, we need to do so with faith. Yes, we might end up flailing about in our own doubts, but at its real centre, is trusting – and knowing – that Jesus will reach out his hand to us. And we will be saved.

Peter

From St Patrick's Latrobe

From St Brigid's

From St Thomas More's

From Sacred Heart, Ulverstone

From Larmenier's Farm

From St Peter Chanel

From Larmenier School

From St Joseph's Queenstown

From Stella Maris

From Our Lady of Lourdes

From St Brendan-Shaw

From Sacred Heart, Launceston

From Star of the Sea (Starship)

From St Patrick's College

From Marist Regional College

Heavenly food for the throng

When evening came, the disciples went to him and said, ‘This is a lonely place, and the time has slipped by; so send the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves some food.’ Jesus replied, ‘There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.’ But they answered, ‘All we have with us is five loaves and two fish.’

Matthew 14:15 - 17

It is perhaps easy to romanticise Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 (not counting women and children) as a de Mille spectacular. Yet it comes sandwiched between the brutal execution of his cousin John the Baptist and Peter’s lack of faith as he sinks beneath the waves. Having withdrawn to a quiet place to grieve, Jesus is hounded by the crowd that has sought him out. Jesus, in a eucharist-like anticipation, feeds them with both his word and with bread, broken and shared. The fish as a symbol of the Christ is ancient and its multiplication of the fish a sign and affirmation of his presence.

The disciples in this setting are servants. When evening came and Jesus had healed their sick, it was the disciples who encouraged Jesus to send them away so that the crowds might find their own food. Nevertheless at Jesus’ bidding the disciples feed the throng.

Once again we see Jesus being moved with compassion and nudging his disciples to serve those who are hungry. The grief-stricken Jesus is the one who puts aside his own concerns to be available to others. The disciples are redirected and begin to feed those gathered.

The story itself is undoubtedly conflated and inflated, certainly such a crowd would be unlikely in a lonely place, nor in reality would sharing five loaves and two fish, no matter how miraculous,  to be achieved in such a timely manner, the logistics would be challenging. This is why this story is so much about the heavenly banquet we all await – it just isn’t possible in all its richness to be fully available right here and now. It is that tension between the now and the eschaton.

For those in leadership roles we can choose to model ourselves on Jesus – let our own concerns and business be put aside in order to serve others – motivated principally by compassion. Or, we can choose to be directed, because we trust in the Lord. Either way, the work is done and we participate in the action that both realises the kingdom and propels us into perfect relationship with our God.

Peter

Peter's whereabouts for the next 2 weeks

Meetings coming up

Please forward any agenda items for meetings (with some indication of time required and context) to Carole at carole.goodwin@catholic.tas.edu.au 

Condolences

Our commiserations to Michelle Wootton whose grandfather, Roy O’Halloran passed away during the holidays. In a twist of fate, Roy was a second cousin to my wife Toni’s mother, Marjory O’Halloran Becker, making Toni and Michelle 3^rd cousins!

Annette

Annette has asked to pass on her thanks to all for the kind wishes and offers of prayer that have been made. 

Images from the spirituality day in the north

Praying the Labyrinth with Kerryal Willis

The Masters of Spin: MJR with Matt Jones and Julian Davie

From Larmenier (and Brent's desk)

From Our Lady of Lourdes

From Our Lady of Mercy

From St Anthony's

From St Brendan Shaw College

From St Brigid's

From St Finn Barr's

From Sacred Heart Launceston

From Sacred Heart Ulverstone

From St Joseph's Queenstown

From St Peter Chanel

From St Patrick's Latrobe

From St Patrick's Prospect

From Stella Maris

From Marist Regional College