{"id":2959,"date":"2015-07-26T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=2959"},"modified":"2015-07-23T20:18:38","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T00:18:38","slug":"reflections-on-the-scriptural-readings-for-this-weekend-20150726","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=2959","title":{"rendered":"Reflections On the Scriptural Readings for This Weekend \u2014 20150726"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter spoke up and said, \u201cLord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you across the water.\u201d \u201cCome!\u201d he said\u2026. But when Peter perceived how strong the wind was, becoming frightened, he began to sink and cried out, \u201cLord, save me!\u201d Jesus at once stretched out his hand and caught him. \u201cHow little faith you have!\u201d \u201cWhy did you falter?\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Walking-on-Water\"<\/a>I know that we all become mesmerized when we hear that Jesus walked on water. We think, how did it happen.<\/p>\n

That is truly not the most important part of this story. The more important part of the story is about Peter\u2019s attempt to walk on water. When he believed he was able to walk out to meet Jesus, he was able to do it. It was only when he perceived how strong the wind was that he began to sink. When Peter calls for help Jesus speaks these very poignant words: How little faith you have! Why did you falter?<\/p>\n

The story tells us that if we have faith we can overcome even the most difficult of challenges. The fact is that so often, when we see the strength of the challenges confronting us, we falter in our faith. This story clearly tells us that if we continue to be strong in our faith we will survive and, in fact, even walk on top of the challenges.<\/p>\n

We have to remember that life must present us with challenges in order for us to spiritually grow. If we never face challenges, we will not grow. This earthly life is all about spiritual growth. Spiritual growth only happens when we draw upon our faith to help us to live-through and truly confront life\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n

This particular story of Jesus walking on water is so singular in the synoptic gospels that scholars believe that in its original context it belongs after the resurrection. Whether this was the original context or not, and it seems probably that it is, the story has a symbolic significance. This chapter begins that portion of Matthew that is called the ecclesiastical portion. The disciples in the boat represent, in a not too subtle way, the Church, from which Jesus is never far even when the situation is threatening and he is invisible. Peter\u2019s attempt, only recorded in Matthew, increases the symbolic significance of the story. His position in the Twelve is affirmed, suggesting that he has responsibilities not shared by the others. In order to meet these responsibilities, he has to have faith.\u00a0\u00a0 Think about this!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter spoke up and said, \u201cLord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you across the water.\u201d \u201cCome!\u201d he said\u2026. But when Peter perceived how strong the wind was, becoming frightened, he began to sink and cried … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-liturgy-of-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2959"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2962,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions\/2962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}