Year A
Jeremiah 28:1-17
Psalm 119:29.43.79.80.95.102 (R. 68b)
Matthew 14:22-36
The Hands that Saves
One of my favorite Ignatian meditation Prayer is "Hands."
In this style of imaginative meditation, you find a quiet space to pray, read each line slowly of the passage of Scripture and pause to consider the questions, your responses, and your feelings. For imaginative freedom you close your eyes. Quieting your busy mind, you then begin imagining Jesus' hands, fingers, nails, palms, their roughness, smoothness, etc.
After inspecting every detail of Jesus’ hands, you take his hands in yours, and feel them, etc. You now wonder how it feels to touch God through your hands and experiencing the love that flows from God you eventually imagine shrinking so small you can fit in Jesus’ hands, and find safety in God.
There are various times in this world where we feel unsafe, troubled and the winds of fear shake us and we are tormented by them. In such moments we are mostly lost. But today, as Peter calls on Jesus to save him, he teaches us and invites us to also call upon him whose hands save.
In Today's gospel, we see a theophany, Jesus walking on Water. Some of the usual actions that happen when God reveal himself are seen here. The expression of fear on the side of those who experience the encounter of God as he reveals himself to them in his glorious presence. This is one of the events that Jesus Christ reveals himself as God, by his action and what he says during that action. When they expressed their fear, he calmed them and said it's me. The Greek word which was translated as it's me is "ego eimi" which means "I am".
Jesus Christ therefore shows that he is God. He takes the Divine name of God in the Old Testament upon himself (cf. Exodus 3:14). He who sits at the "right hand" of God the Father is our Saviour. The right hand of God is understood in Scriptures as his saving action.
Exodus 15:6"Your right hand, Yahweh, wins glory by its strength, your right hand, Yahweh, shatters your foes,"
The reason why Jesus is the saviour then is not only because saving is the meaning of his name but because as the Word who was with God and was God, his role is Salvation: healing the sick, giving life to the dead, consoling the weary, giving rest to souls, etc. Because at the final judgment, those who do the will of God will be saved, that is why Jesus said:
John 5:22"for the Father judges no one; he has entrusted all judgement to the Son,"
Mostly our will, what we want to hear rather than what we need to hear, leads us to destruction. Yesterday the higher calling from God was to hear him and come and eat and drink with him. But the conditions to answer his call mostly does not favour our will, hence we choose that which we think will be good for us.
In the first reading, the prophet Hananiah, like us who will like to hear what we want and do what we want, preached rebellion against God. Saying what God has not sent him to say and making people believe in a lie, he did not want the people of God to obey God.
God wants us to be united with him through his Word, the same Word through whom he called the world into existence and is calling us to return to him. But there are those who wants us to believe that God has no plan for us, we can live our lives as we please, there is neither heaven nor hell, and so,
Matthew 19:6"... what God has united, human beings must not divide."
God is calling, he wants a relationship with you. The trials of this world cannot separate you from his love. However our disobedience to and rejection of God which is sin can. But God is willing to save us if we reach out our hands to him for him to save us.
By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
Edited by
Michael Owusu Amponsah
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