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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
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Gospel text (Mt 14:22-36): Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone.

Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

The "power of God"

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, Jesus Christ shows us the genuine "power of God". Just a few hours before, He had been feeding a crowd with the miraculous multiplication of the loaves, and they endeavored to make him a king. By hiding, Jesus rejected this interpretation of his kingship. But now He wants to show the Apostles who He is: while walking on the waters, He soothed them with the majestic "I Am" (the name of God).

God's power is not like that of the powerful of this world. God's ways are different. God does not enter into competition with earthly powers in this world. He does not marshal His divisions alongside other divisions. He contrasts the noisy and ostentatious power of this world with the defenseless power of love, which succumbs to death on the Cross and, yet, it is the new divine reality that opposes injustice and ushers in the Kingdom of God.

—O Jesus, help us to understand that the power of God is different, that the Messiah must come into the glory and reach the glory through suffering.