August 9 th, 2026 (19 Sunday Ordinary A)

Dear brothers and sisters, today Elijah the prophet experiences the passing of Yahweh on Mount Horeb through a tiny whispering sound. The apostles after the multiplication of the loves and fish and the feeding of the five thousand after seeing the great miracle Christ performed and how the people want to make him king are obliged by Christ to leave that place. Christ forces them at night on the boat to cross to the other side. In the middle of the sea and in the middle of the night Christ wants for the apostles to experience a theophany, like for Elija on mount Horeb, the passing of Yahweh. Christ goes away to pray leaving the apostles completely alone and wants them to have an experience of God not in a triumphant way but in the middle of a storm. This is also for us the experience of faith God would like to bring us. Through the events and sufferings of our life we also experience this darkness and this being alone and the fear of sinking and dying. In our sufferings, in the middle of the tempest and when everything is dark, God brings us to have a true experience of faith. Christ wants to show all of us today how God passes and intervenes in the most difficult events of our life. The apostles experience Jesus Christ walking on the water and calming the storm. Christ shows us that he is more powerful than the waters of death, he walks over death calling us to faith also. Christ gives us also the faith to walk over the waters of our problems and of our sufferings of our sins, something that humanly is impossible and only God can give us the strength to do. Nobody can in fact walk over the water and over death. If we look at Christ, he can do this in our life. In our cross which is the biggest storm and darkness we can face we experience the glory of the resurrection in Jesus Christ.

Peace,

Fr. Nicholas, Pastor