We live in an age which loves the spectacular. Bigger is better — bigger houses, bigger bank accounts, bigger numbers of twitter followers. We are even impressed with bigger churches — “that mega-church has ten thousand members!” Elijah seemed to expect that God would be found in the spectacular as well. But God was not in the earthquake, the volcano, the hurricane. God was in the “tiny, whispering sound.” Small is beautiful? Saint Peter was looking for something spectacular as well. Walking on water would qualify. But he forgot to keep his focus on Jesus and sank. “Why did you doubt?” There are spectacular problems that confront us in the world today: global warming, hunger and poverty, war abroad and gun violence on our streets, political animosity, religious indiffernce, racism, and the list goes on. We can doubt our ability to find a way through all these storms to reach safe harbor. Like St. Peter we must keep our eyes on Jesus. He extends a hand out to lift us out of our sea of troubles. We must have faith that his way, the way of compassion, of forgiveness, of peace, of generosity, of self-sacrifice, of love is the true remedy to keep us from sinking beneat the weight of it all.
