Tag Archives: Peter

A Homily for Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 25th, 2024

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Saint Thomas Aquinas Church, Bridgewater MA

“He performed these great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed.
Therefore, we also will serve the Lord for He is our God.” (Joshua 24)

In this chapter from the Book of Joshua, we see the children of Israel, the ones who fled from Egypt, and their children, make a promise to obey God, follow His teachings, and live according to His commandments.

As we read through the Old Testament stories, we see how they struggled to be faithful to that initial promise they made to God. They were not always successful.


In today’s Gospel reading, we also see the inability for many of the people who had originally committed themselves to Jesus ; only to find that they could not accept His teaching and went back to their old ways. Only the Twelve remained; and even they could not fully understand, at first, what Jesus was trying to teach them. But they knew something wonderful was happening; they believed in Jesus.


The question that is before us this day is how strong is our belief in, of our acceptance of the Good News that was proclaimed by Jesus. I read in the newspapers, watch on television, see on my laptop, the news of the decline in church attendance. We hear of the lack of interest in practicing the faith. It pains me to see how few young people are not coming to church, to experince the love and joy one gets from encountering Christ in the Eucharist.


So what are we going to do? First of all is that we must not lose hope. Hold onto the Jesus, embrace Him and His teaching. Open our hearts and let the grace of the Spirit flood in; guiding us on how to live the Good News in today’s fractured world. Each of us, in our own unique ways, can help make Christ present and active in our homes, our communities. Where we socialize or where we work; we can become living examples of Jesus Christ’s teachings; living examples of what it means to live the Gospel, here and now.


“Jesus then said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to leave?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Master to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”


May Simon Peter’s response be our own, as we go into the world around us.

Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Rough seas ahead!

1st Kings 19: 9a, 11-13a; Romans 9: 1-5; Matt 14: 22-33

I grew up in the North Shore of Massachusetts. Now, while I was a young boy, my father and one of my uncles’s co-owned a small, wooden outboard motor boat. We would bring it up with us to the Sebago lakes region, where we usually rented adjoining cabins. Now they also used to take the boat out into Lynn Harbor, where they, myself, my brothers and cousins would sometimes go fishing. Now one Saturday, it started out to be a beautiful day. We were just at the entrance of the harbor, almost into the ocean, when suddenly, this squall hit! I mean the waves started getting very big, the boat was bouncing all over the place, as my father and uncle tried to get the boat to an anchorage. After one big bounce, the rear bench we kids were on, suddenly broke, and we were sprawled on the bottom of the boat. What had been an adventure, was turning into something very scary. We finally made it safely to the Nahant town dock. But I will never forget how scared; how really scared I was.

In today’s Gospel, we see the disciples going on ahead of Jesus, by boat on the Sea of Galilee, they also, run into very rough weather, they too were being tossed about by the waves. The fishermen of the group were probably concerned, the landlubbers in the group were probably scared out of their wits. On top of everything else, there is this figure moving towards them through the stormy water, so they think, it’s got to be a ghost, right? Then Jesus calls out “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Now, Peter, wanting proof, asks Jesus to command him to come out and meet him on the water. He probably also wants to show Jesus that he has the right stuff, unlike these landlubbers. And Jesus calls him to come out to him. And he is doing it, up to a point. He suddenly realizes he is walking on water, in the middle of a squall, and he thinks “Holy “bleep!!”; what am I doing out here!!” He begins to sink into waves, and Jesus has to rescue him! So what happened? He had begun to looked at the storm around him, losing sight of Jesus, and giving into his fears! What was it Jesus said to the disciples when they first saw him, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

We are living in frightening times! We see a threat to our health, to our lives that appears invisible, but is very, very real. We see an economy that was once the envy of the world, come crashing down. We have people out there in our community, who are afraid, because they do not know how they will pay bills, buy food, pay rent or mortgage! No matter how much we may deny it, I am willing to bet that everyone one of us feels something of the fear that is abroad in this country, in this world.

“Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Peter ran into trouble because he was not focused on Jesus! We can give into fear, if we are not focused on Jesus Christ, the Son of God! We need to become aware of His Presence in our lives, in every moment. We need to really listen and focus on His Word! We are all called to look to the altar, where we see ordinary bread and wine, that will soon become the Body and Blood of Christ! And we will receive Him, and be strengthened by Him for the times that ahead. The problems may not disappear, they may get better, they may get worst. But we are not alone in our struggles, we not alone with our fear; Jesus is with us in this journey. He will always be with us, supporting us in the midst of whatever storm we are in!

“At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”