Today’s readings all deal with the question of humanity’s search for and encounter with divinity. As today’s scripture show us, it is not that humanity is able to seek and find God by its own powers, but rather it is God who allows God’s self to be discovered by us. And usually we encounter God in the most unexpected of places and ways. Elijah encounters the living God in “the silence.”
In the Gospel the disciples are battling with the storm on the lake, in the circumstances that make any encounter with God highly improbable. Jesus invites Peter to recognize who He is, to have faith in Him, to take the step of faith. But it is only a step. Faced with the reality of the storm and danger of death, Peter’s faith wavers and he needs the Lord to save him.
In our lives, we can find ourselves like Elijah and Peter – at the end of our tether, living in fear, full of doubts. God comes to us unexpectedly – in the silence, in the midst of our busyness and our fear, in our tiredness and brokenness, in our doubts and desperation. The Lord invites us to come out of the darkness of the caves of our lives, to step out of the security of our little boats and to place our trust in Him.