08/08/2026
NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A
TEXTS: 1 Kgs 19, 9.11-13 / Ps 85, 8-13 / Rom 9, 1-5 / Mt 14, 22-33
PREACHER: Rev. Fr. Martin Kotchoffa, svd
THEME: Count on the Lord
Beloved today is the nineteenth Sunday in ordinary time, year A. And the liturgical texts that, mother Church proposes to us, invite us to a deep-faith-relationship with the Lord.
In the Gospel’s reading we see Peter who wishes to meet His Savior. To be sure that it is the Lord He asks Him to order him to come. And indeed Christ gives him that order. When Christ gave the order, Peter did start walking on the water. If my science is exact because the water body is not a solid surface we cannot stand or walk on it directly. But Peter did walk. This tells us that when Christ decrees the universe obeys, when he says “yes” nobody can say “no”. The water symbolizes the challenges, difficulties, problems, etc. of our life. Sometimes we are faced with unbearable situations to which no solution humanly speaking can be found except divine intervention. That is exactly what Peter was facing. The fear of storms, of the water, etc. was preventing Him from recognizing that the Lord was coming to their rescue. But when he made the effort to cry towards the Lord the Lord answers. Does the bible not say that “this poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord, and was saved from every trouble”? (Ps 34, 6) Beloved when we are able to turn to the Lord in all our life’s situations, He will definitively work wonders in our life. To whom do we turn, when we are facing challenges in our life?
One thing is to turn to the Lord another one is to confidently abandon ourselves to Him without fear or doubt. Peter started walking on the water, soon he realizes that it is humanly speaking impossible for him to walk on the water. He is wondering if it is true that he is walking on the water. Now fear started nurturing its power in him and Peter begins to believe that he will sink because what is happening now to him is not possible. And indeed he started sinking. Beloved that is what also happens to us in our daily life. Often when we turn to the Lord we do not abandon ourselves totally to Him. We wonder if God will act in our life, if He can do what we ask for, if He can save us from this situation. When we think like that, even when God starts working in our life we fail to see it and therefore we turn somewhere else for solutions. And finally our life’s condition becomes worse than before. Many of us have missed miracles in our life just because we started wondering if this could be true, if God could remove this mountain or stone from our life.
Probably we think so because we expect God to act in our life like a burning fire we can see, or a flashing thunder or even an earthquake. Failure to see such signs leads us to believe that God is not present in our life and that he cannot or will not grant our desire. But beloved let me tell you that, when Elijah was in the cave waiting for the Lord, the Bible says: “Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the was not was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire” (1kgs 19, 11-12a) God was not in all these great signs one can see. It is not their manifestation in our life that should give us the assurance that the Lord is at work in our life. But then “after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave” (1Kgs 19, 12b-13). This means that it is in the silence that God works marvel in our life.
Beloved, you may be convinced that the Lord has forgotten you, that He does not care about you, that He has abandoned you, that you are not important in His eyes, that He will not deliver you from your sickness, that He will not open new job’s opportunities for you, that He will not put on way your life’s partner, that He will not act in your couple to save your marriage that is going bad, that He will not grant you success in your business, etc. Be quiet and see what the Lord is doing in your life.
Beloved, when we are deeply rooted in Christ then we fear nothing. We know in whom we have put our trust. Things may seem slow, it may seem that the situation is not changing, it may look as if God is slow in his doing, it may seem that God has not heard your cry, yet do not fall into despair and discouragement because your God is working secretly to uplift you. He is working in your life in a way that you cannot see for now. This situation will not prevail over you. Therefore count on the Lord and only the Lord and you will see His glory in your life.
Beloved if today you hear the voice of the Lord inviting you to count on Him alone harden not your heart. Amen