19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel points out how humans can lack trust in each other. Peter presents himself as a confident individual when he asks Jesus to tell him to walk on the water. Yet, this confidence fades away as Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and he sinks. The reassuring side of this story is that Jesus immediately stretched out his hand and caught him (Matthew 14:31). Children can be seen as modern examples of Peter as they know to stick close to their parents, but also love to explore. Yet, when they wander too far away, or fail to stay fixated on their parents, they cry out for help.
The Spiritual Exercises also deal with issues of trust because the retreatant is called to trust the director, but ultimately to trust God. Certainly, this is not an easy aspect because the majority of humans desire to always be in control; yet to go on retreat is to open oneself up to letting God “run the show.” During this week, may we be open to trusting God and others to lead and guide us when we are struggling.