Homily: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 

August 9, 2026

My dear brothers and sisters, the readings of today present to us this special image of God as the God who calms the storms of our life, the God who operates in a gentle, calm and loving environment. From this gospel reading, we can easily see the difference in the lives of the disciples of Jesus when Jesus was not with them and when Jesus was with them. When Jesus was not with them, their boat was battered by the waves, the storm in their life was unbearable. However, when Jesus came into the boat of their life, the story changed, they felt a touch of peace. It is a lesson to us that when Jesus is in the boat of our life, we will have a peace of soul. When Jesus is included in our family life, our family will be a peaceful and loving family.

In this miracle, the character of Peter stood out. His faith is worthy of admiration. When Jesus beckoned on him to walk on the sea, with the threatening waves, it was like throwing himself to the jaws of death, however, since Jesus has spoken, Peter immediately obliged. We see in him a very strong dependence on the power and word of Christ. His action is indeed very inspiring. Like him, do we take the word of seriously such that the word of God stands as a moral guide to us on what we do and what we refrain from? We equally learn from his mistakes. As long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, he was safe, he was able to do what was impossible in the sight of men, he walked safely on the sea. When he turned his eyes away from Jesus and concentrated on the strong wind, he became frightened and he lost faith in Jesus, the next thing was that he began to sink. It was only when he refocused on Jesus and cried to Jesus to save him, that Christ rescued him.

When we turn our eyes away from God and concentrate on different strong winds, waves, frightening and corrupting voices in the world, the risk of sinking and getting drowned in the world becomes very nearby. It is a fact of life that the water around the ship no matter how massive and frightening it is, does not sink the ship, it may be the small volume of sea water that enters the ship, that will send the ship down to the bottom of the sea. The negative and hostile voices in the world that we have allowed to enter into us may turn out to be the cause of our destruction. New drivers on highway 401, often recounted their experiences that when they focused on the road in front of them, they drove very well but when their attention was turned to the valley and the ditch and the long truck by the side, their hands started shaking on the steering wheel and their body started shivering and the risk of fatal collision became very high. Brothers and sisters, it is very important that we be on guard against the negative voices in the world, the hostile influences on the social media that we often negligently allow into our life.

This image of God as a God of a gentle breeze is also seen in the first reading of today. We remember the encounter at Mt Carmel where Elijah staged a some kind of a competition between the living God and the false god Baal brought into Israel by the wicked queen Jezebel in order to determine which God answereth by fire. When Baal did not answer but the living God of Israel devoured His sacrifice with fire, Elijah ordered that the four hundred prophets of Baal be slaughtered. When the wicked queen Jezebel heard this, she swore to destroy Elijah. It was then that Elijah ran for his life and went and hid in the caves, he begged God to take his life. God then showed him this vision that we read today. Elijah did not hear the voice of God in the wind, in the splitting mountains and rocks, on the earthquake or in the fire. God only came to him in a silent, gentle breeze. God taught Elijah one lesson that endures forever that God is love. We all are children of God who is love. God cannot be found in the violent crashes and aggression in our families and in our society. Tornadoes of vituperations, physical and verbal abuse, thundering condemnations and threats of fire and brimstone are not the means God uses to bring back his prodigal sons, and they are not the means he wants us his friends, to use either. God is to be found in “the tiny gentle breeze,” in the kind, charitable, loving and understanding word spoken out of a true brotherly heart and in a life lived in charity.