3 August 2026 – Monday of the 18th week
HOMILY
In today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals himself as God to his frightened disciples by walking on the water.
Let us pause for a moment to reflect on this final encounter between the disciples and Jesus and see what message the evangelist Matthew wishes to convey to us. Firstly, let us note that Matthew mentions Jesus’ solitary prayer only twice in his entire Gospel: on this occasion and in the Garden of Gethsemane, at particularly tragic moments. After learning of the death of John the Baptist, Jesus sets off in a boat with his disciples to a quiet, secluded spot. The crowd realizes this and gets there before them. He takes pity on these poor people and feeds them after healing their sick. He then compels (the word is strong) his disciples to go to the other side. The other shore was no longer in Israel; it was now the world of the pagans, to which they too had to go. Undoubtedly, he also wanted to protect them from the danger of being swept along by the crowd into a movement that would transform Jesus into a political Messiah. He dismissed the crowd and went up the mountain to pray to his Father. As a result of this encounter with God, his humanity takes on one of the characteristics that the Old Testament recognized as God’s prerogative: that of walking on water (cf. Job 9:8; 38:16).
The world we live in often seems like a boat buffeted by the wind on a stormy sea. Let us think, for example, of the war currently ravaging the Gaza Strip and of many other conflicts around the world. If Jesus were to appear, walking calmly across this stormy sea, we would no doubt think, like the Apostles, that he was a ghost. And yet, he continues to come to us, not in loud displays, but in the gentle breeze. If we have the courage – or the recklessness – to challenge him in the same way that Peter challenged him: ‘If it is you, command me to come to you’, he will say to us: ‘Come!’ Peter’s ‘if’ – his ability to acknowledge and accept his doubt – is as courageous as his ‘let me’ – his willingness to obey, whatever the cost. May we too have the courage to cross this stormy sea without fear and to go out to meet Jesus even before he reappears in the boat. Everyone in the boat recognized Jesus when the wind died down. Just as Elijah had recognized God in the gentle breeze. Perhaps God’s challenge to the men and women of today, as it was to Peter, is to find him at the very heart of the storm.
Let us not wait for all conflicts on the international stage – or even within the Church – to subside before hoping for the grace of an intimate encounter with Jesus. These are times for strong and daring characters like Peter. In a world where God reveals himself in such bewildering ways, let us have the audacity to say to him: ‘If it is really you, command me to come out to meet you, walking through this chaos of ours’. He will undoubtedly say to us: ‘Come’. Let us pray for the courage to press on, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus and not on the storm surrounding us. But even if the storm brings our fears back, it does not matter. Jesus will take us by the hand and lift us into the boat… without forgetting that this boat is on its way to the other shore, towards the world of the ‘nations’, towards the universal mission.