12 Aug 2017

This Week Letter – August 13, 2017

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Dear Parishioners and Friends.
In every situation, God speaks, teaches, calls, and man responds. The basis of the dialogue of man with God is boundless trust towards God, to give himself into His hands. In the conversation between man and God, it is clear that the initiative belongs to God. The basic act on the part of man is faith and listening to the Word of God.

Dialogue is also a mutual reference point of two persons – God and man: God calls us for friendship with Himself and between one another, bestowing His grace and man who responds to His gift. The gifts of God, and the most perfect human responses to them, have been realized in Jesus Christ. God speaks to us through different situations, people, families, friends, Scripture, through the media, with the mouth of the priests, and also through other people. How do we hear, understand and accept this Word? It is our role to listen, understand texts, accept words as love and goodness, even if they sound strange to our ears. And in replying, we give thanks for the fact that we are acting for the sake of living and asking, not for an easy life, but above all the gifts of the Holy Spirit to lead us through life. Often we imagine God to be very far away; we see Him as the Creator, often a loving old man with a long beard, but remember that He is very close, close in Jesus Christ.
The events described in today’s Gospel (Mt 14: 22-33), give rise to reflections on the importance of personal prayer and how to cope with life’s difficulties. Jesus, after meeting with the crowd and after feeding them, departed from the disciples to find some peace. The respite is sought in personal prayer, in solitude, for which He has not devoted time. The importance of personal prayer is clearly emphasized here. Its healing strength restores spiritual balance. Prayer should not be quick, forced or treated as a duty, because then it is not an authentic conversation with God. Prayer raises the essence of man, i.e. his mind and heart, to God. It can be said that God Himself established prayer as a source of communication with Him and the source of God’s life. Let us not forget about God and not be ashamed of making the sign of the cross before eating, before the activities of daily life. In the end, it is thanks to Him that we exist, we live, we function. Therefore, let us talk through prayer with the Lord, thanking Him for everything we experience.
The second event that describes this Gospel is the struggles of the Apostles with the element. As they sailed to the other side of Lake Genezaret, nature was no favorable to them, because they sailed against the wind. Personal prayer, struggling with difficulties – these are the situations of our human life. Some struggle in vain with problems in their lives, others draw their strength from prayer, from trust and faith in God, in order to survive and cope with difficulties. Concentrating on ourselves, in our difficult situation, causes us to repeatedly overlook the Lord Jesus ready to help us. We need more courage and faith.

God bless!

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