Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Father Dan Juelfs
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 13, 2023

“Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

This very familiar account of Peter striving to be confident in the power of Jesus to keep him above water, is a great example of faith for all of us. Really, I think all of Peter’s life throughout the scriptures is an example of faith. Why? Why can I say that? Well, don’t we see Peter continually failing, misunderstanding, and having to be corrected by Jesus? We see that over and over again. Yes, it happened. It happened to Peter and really it happens to all of us and probably it should because we should always be checking our faith. We should always be trying to see if what we understand is correct or not. If we’re really following what it is that God wants. Testing our trust in God.

God never changes, but we do. And we struggle sometimes to keep ourselves in contact with God and allowing ourselves to be cared for by God.

“You of little faith.”

At first response it sounds like a negative. It sounds like not something we’d want to hear but look at Peter. Yes, he oftentimes fails. He struggles, but he never gives up. He always has the faith to come back and try again. He may not always get it right the first time, and he may come forth with a great deal of enthusiasm and fail but it doesn’t stop them from believing. It doesn’t stop him from trying to do what he wants to do. Yeah, he’s going to deny that he even knew who Jesus was. He’s going to run away and hide at the time of the Crucifixion. He has lots of those incidents and yet he never gives up. He always comes back. He keeps allowing himself to try again.

Peter, Jesus I should say, doesn’t say he has no faith just that it isn’t perfect. Just that it isn’t complete yet. We look at Peter and we see all his struggles, we see all his difficulties and realize that God always calls us to have that same kind of trust. It may not be perfect. We may not always do what we want to do. We may not always be able to act in a way we’d like it to, but like Peter we’re called and invited to keep trying. To keep coming back. Not to give up. To believe that God is there for us. To believe that yes, we can.

Even with all his failures, Jesus called Peter to be the head of his Church. Why? Because Peter knew where to go when he needed help. Because Peter knew what he couldn’t do. He certainly experienced it often enough. Peter knew what he had to do when he was in too much, when he was in over his head. He needed help and he could holler, “Lord, save me.” He could call out to God for that kind of help.

You know, I don’t think I’m ever going to try to walk on water, but I think Peter is a great example for me in terms of the kind of faith that we need. Really, an example of faith for all of us.