As you gather today in your churches for this Sunday's liturgy, the word of God is very special because it impresses upon us how often the Lord deals with us in ways that oftentimes can seem mysterious to us.
My brothers and sisters, mystery is a necessary part of our Catholic faith. Why? Because just remember who we are as human beings. Right? We have been given beautiful gifts of hearing and seeing and smell and all the senses and the intellect. And yet we are so finite and limited. We can do extraordinary things, incredible things, beautiful things. But God is infinite. He is omnipotent. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. And so He being unlimited and ourselves being limited naturally will create a space for mystery. Because God Himself does not require us to know every single detail about him.
Now that said, he has revealed himself. He's revealed himself in time in what we call public revelation. And today's readings beautifully demonstrate this reality of how God has communicated himself. And we can learn from this. Because a lot of times we think God needs to appear to us and speak to us directly if we are truly to hear his word.
And yet, in the first reading from the first book of Kings, what happens to Elijah? We are told that "at the mountain of God, Horeb," which is another name for Mount Sinai, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter (1 Kings 19:8-9). Now remember, Mount Sinai is an important mountain. You know why. It is on Mount Sinai that God declared his covenant with his people and ratified that covenant through the Ten Commandments. And it was on Mount Sinai that God manifested himself in great theophanies with Moses. And so Elijah, properly speaking, comes to pay homage to this place so sacred to Moses because of what God had revealed on that mountain.
And we're told he took shelter in a cave. That cave is still being looked after by Greek Orthodox monks. There is a beautiful monastery that's been there since the sixth century, which is just beneath this cave where Elijah and Moses would have frequented.
And the Lord said to Elijah, "Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by." A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord, "but the LORD was not in the wind." After the wind there was an earthquake, "but the LORD was not in the earthquake." After the earthquake, there was fire, "but the LORD was not in the fire." After the fire, there was "a tiny whispering sound." When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave (1 Kings 19:11-13).
My dear brothers and sisters, God appeared to Moses hidden beneath the fire. But this was not to be the case with Elijah. For the fire came, but he was not in the fire. Our Lord was in the tiny whispering sound in the ear of Elijah. The silence. God came to him in the silence.
How important this is for us, my brothers and sisters. How often do we ramble on so many words? Our Lord even warned us about this (Matthew 6:7). And of course, it's all with good intentions. We want to get our prayers done. We have so many that we got to read off and list off. And we discipline ourselves, which is good, but we can't forget the spirit of prayer, which is communication with God, dialogue with God, not a monologue. Dialogue. To sit in the silence. To not always feel the need that we have to say something. Because in that silence, God wishes to communicate with us.
And it'll come by way of thoughts, memories, an image, a song that we may have heard, a person we may have met, some beautiful scene seen in nature that we had witnessed, a calm and still lake with beautiful countryside surrounding it, pristine waters that only remind us of the goodness of God. Of course, his very word through which he speaks to us. So in that silence, we open ourselves up to hear God's voice, who again speaks to us in mysterious ways, in ways that only God can speak to us. Of course, all of us can recall moments where we can clearly say God was trying to say something to us.
In the gospel today, Jesus, after he had fed the people, sent the disciples to the other side of the lake on the boat. And he went up to the mountain to pray on his own. When it was evening, he was there alone. Yet, meanwhile, on the boat, already a few miles offshore, the apostles were being tossed about by the waves. The wind was against them (Matthew 14:22-24).
The Romans had four watches throughout the night. The first watch was 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The second watch was 9 p.m. to midnight. The third watch was from midnight to 3 in the morning, and the fourth watch was from 3 in the morning to 6 in the morning.
In the gospel we hear that "in the fourth watch of the night" Jesus came toward them, walking on the sea (Matthew 14:25). So this detail is far from merely a time stamp. The disciples had been struggling against the wind for many hours, therefore. Jesus had sent them away in the evening, and they had spent most of the night battling the storm. So by the fourth watch they would have been physically exhausted, emotionally drained, and perhaps beginning to lose hope. And they probably asked, "Why did the Lord send us out knowing that there would be this storm?"
Many of the Fathers of the Church saw a huge spiritual lesson in this. Christ often seems to delay, not because he is absent, but because he is preparing us to trust in Him more deeply. He arrived when the Apostles' own strength had been exhausted so that they would learn to rely entirely more on him.
There is also a beautiful biblical symbolism. The fourth watch is the moment just before sunrise. Darkness has not yet disappeared, but dawn is imminent. Throughout Scripture, God frequently acts at this hour. We recall that Israel crossed the Red Sea as morning approached (Exodus 14:24-27). The resurrection was discovered "very early in the morning" at the breaking of a new day (Mark 16:2). And here Jesus reveals his divine authority over the chaotic waters just before dawn.
God does not always calm the storm immediately, my brothers and sisters, the storms of our lives. Sometimes he lets us row through the night. But he never forgets us. He comes in the fourth watch, at the moment when our strength is gone and his grace can be seen most clearly. The darkest hour often comes just before the dawn, and Christ is already walking towards us.
Be of heart, my brothers and sisters. May the Lord manifest Himself to you in a very special way, not only this day, but in the coming days and weeks and months and years. May He make Himself known to you. May His face shine upon you, and may He bless you always.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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