Sailing into stormy seas can be terrifying, especially when it's the storm within our souls. Ever wondered how Jesus' miracles of calming the tempestuous waters translate to our modern lives? Accompany us, alongside Father Andrew Hamilton and Father Christopher Pujol, as we navigate through the rousing narratives from Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus showcased His divine authority by commanding the raging seas to be still. Join us on a riveting exploration of these miracles, unearthing aspects of Jesus' personality not typically highlighted, and the powerful metaphor of the boat as the Church - the 'bark of Peter'.
Leaning into life's unpredictable moments can lead us to unexpected strength, humility, and growth. But how do we find steadiness in our wavering faith? Using personal stories and biblical narratives, we discuss the process of embracing our insufficiency, the challenges of priest transfers, and the profound experience of ministering to a dying cancer patient. Tune in to our soul-stirring conversation about the grace that surfaces in times of uncertainty, and the ways the Lord guides us through our own personal storms. Get ready to experience a transformative exploration of faith, miracles, and the power of grace - a spiritual compass for our tumultuous journey through life.
Sailing into stormy seas can be terrifying, especially when it's the storm within our souls. Ever wondered how Jesus' miracles of calming the tempestuous waters translate to our modern lives? Accompany us, alongside Father Andrew Hamilton and Father Christopher Pujol, as we navigate through the rousing narratives from Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus showcased His divine authority by commanding the raging seas to be still. Join us on a riveting exploration of these miracles, unearthing aspects of Jesus' personality not typically highlighted, and the powerful metaphor of the boat as the Church - the 'bark of Peter'.
Leaning into life's unpredictable moments can lead us to unexpected strength, humility, and growth. But how do we find steadiness in our wavering faith? Using personal stories and biblical narratives, we discuss the process of embracing our insufficiency, the challenges of priest transfers, and the profound experience of ministering to a dying cancer patient. Tune in to our soul-stirring conversation about the grace that surfaces in times of uncertainty, and the ways the Lord guides us through our own personal storms. Get ready to experience a transformative exploration of faith, miracles, and the power of grace - a spiritual compass for our tumultuous journey through life.
Jordan Whiteko:
You're listening to the Catholic Accent Podcast. In this podcast, we discuss the acts and miracles that Jesus performed that stunned his disciples. Today's topic is Storms at Sea. I'm Jordan Waiko, along with Father Andrew Hamilton and Father Christopher Pujol. In Matthew's Gospel there are two stories of the disciples being in a boat at sea during a storm. Some of these guys were fishermen, so they're probably used to that, but they're frightened. How bad must have the storm been to scare them? Pretty bad.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
I would assume that they were tossing way up and down. There's a famous painting by Rembrandt who does Return of the?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Prodigal Son. But it's the Storm of the Sea of Galilee and it has the ship way up, kind of their boat, way up in the air, and it's all the disciples flipping out, and then you just have Jesus, very calm in the midst of everything. Like you said, with previous experience on the Sea of Galilee, these guys would have been in some pretty bad storms within their lives, so it had to be something that was outside of the norm for them to be that worked up about it?
Jordan Whiteko:
Oh for sure, for the first account of both of these stories, jesus calls the storm to stop at his command. What would their reaction have been seeing Jesus do this?
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Well, I think it would go to show that he's the God of all creation, so his word always denotes an action. So Jesus is the word that spoke creation into being, and so all creation responds to his command.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
I think it's hard on a human level For them that walk with Jesus all the time. If people have seen, maybe like the chosen series, they kind of get into this like essence that you see Jesus, you know they're not just always looking at him as like the divine president in front of them but they have this personal reality right, like they're bantering back and forth, like that Jesus wouldn't have been just like serious all the time, calm, that's not how like they experienced Jesus.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
So they kind of like break from Jesus, just being like one of them. To like all of a sudden like whoa, okay, like we know this about you, but like you really put on everything right now to show us there's a divinity here and, of course, calming the winds like that would have been something that no man's doing.
Jordan Whiteko:
You mentioned.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
He was asleep at first In the first account In the first account.
Jordan Whiteko:
So they're waking him up? Oh yeah, and he immediately but he.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
It's funny because he kind of yells at the disciples first. They're like, instead of calming and fixing the situation. He says why are you afraid? You have no faith, I'm here with you" and then he rebukes the wind and the sea and calms it.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
And there's kind of an escalation in the Gospel of Matthew right. So in chapter 8, that's the one where Jesus is in the boat with them, and then chapter 14, jesus is walking on the water towards them, but they're in the boat themselves together as the storms are already tossing them and Jesus isn't there. Not that Jesus is so much testing them, but he says again to them like oh, ye of little faith.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
That they should be learning more as they spend time with Jesus Like they've seen this one time before and how it happens, and he's like, okay, guys this is how it ends In the second account, where he's on the water, you know, walking towards them.
Jordan Whiteko:
So Jesus is walking on water, like to me I'd be, like I'd freak out.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
This isn't like him walking on a sand bar either for people to say like oh, maybe it was just like a naturalistic explanation of this. It says in the Gospel stories around this that it's like a few miles out. So I've never seen a sand bar.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
That just walks through the midst of it.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Yeah, so this is like crazy. And it's in the midst of these huge storms. So if you think in storms, water's hitting in the face, everything else, you don't have a clear picture of him coming from very far away. So that's why they yell like is it a ghost, Spooky Casper?
Jordan Whiteko:
So they're two separate days, so what are the chances that these they will be on the boat in a storm two separate occasions and Jesus has to remind them to have faith and to believe.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Yeah, I mean Jordan, have you ever tried to walk on water?
Jordan Whiteko:
as kids, we all tried to like I'll straight up, just run straight from one side of the pool Walk like running see if I can.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
You're like one of those lizards.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Yeah, one of those lizards that could skim across the water. But you think every time, every time. But the other thing, like as a kid I remember, like trying to the little mini boogie boards, you know, trying to stand up. You can't even do that, no.
Jordan Whiteko:
And there's. There were times where I put it in the pool and try to run on top of it. Yes, and it still doesn't work. Fall back Exactly so it was the boat a metaphor for anything?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Yeah, so the ship boat. It's always been an image actually of the church itself, or even sometimes referred to as the bark. Be a RQ you eat the bark of.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Peter, because Peter's kind of the head of the, the College of Apostles there and the band of brothers of Jesus. And so when we stay within the boat with Jesus, when in some sense we're within the church, and then we can go into the stormy waters. And you know what happens when you're in stormy waters and Jesus isn't there with you, you sink right and the church never sinks and, fun fact, the air.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Do Jordan? Do you know the area where people sit and are gathered at in a church? Do you know what that area is called you? Mean the pews yeah, but that that the Senate answer Jordan.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
good answer so what?
Fr. Chris Pujol:
what is the name of the military branch of the ocean and the seas? The Navy, the Navy. What, then, that area of the church is called is the nave because they say Navy in many of like the older Gothic churches, like even at the cathedral. If you look up at the ceiling, it's the hollow of the ship inverted to remind us that together we're in that great ship of the church moving forward no matter the storms in Notre Dame in Paris.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
you know that famously burnt a couple years ago. Yeah, if you would look at it on the river that it's set on the even the buttresses that come down from it, it looks kind of like a ship, like in that row, like you're in the middle of the storm.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
You want this boat, you want you want to be in the church.
Jordan Whiteko:
You want to be in the church. So, like Jesus, asks Peter to step out of the boat and and walk to him.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Jesus didn't ask Peter. Peter, in his stubbornness, said Lord, command me to come to you. And then Jesus said fine, try me, come on. And so it's always Peter who's continuing to learn these lessons before he takes on the ship of the church himself after the death and resurrection of our Lord. And so Peter, who's always putting his foot in his mouth and always wanting to be the best and take control, because we hear later Jesus say Peter, get behind me Satan. It's not that Peter's Satan, but instead of following Christ, he's trying to get in front of him. And so, even in this moment, he's like well, make me, I want to walk on water too. I mean, it'd be great, we just talked about it, it'd be fun, it would be awesome.
Jordan Whiteko:
Right, like if I could have one superpower, maybe I would want to you know walk on water, it could go anywhere.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
He's trying to show off for the boys, exactly.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Exactly. And so Peter starts to walk on water. He fears and he immediately sinks. But what does our Lord do? Puts out his arm, grabs him, throws him back in the boat and gets in the boat. And gets in the boat and calms everything. It's a perfect sign of our lives. No matter what happens, we call out for a Lord and he's going to help us in so many ways.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Peter's using his own self will to walk beyond the ship and go his own way. You know, command, Lord, that this happen, his own will rather than Jesus's, which Jesus, seemingly, is coming to the boat to be with him, to calm things. So that's always one of the parts of our discipleship which is not my will be done, but what we say in our Father, thy will be done.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
And it brings us to the idea of doubt. You know we're always going to have doubt in our lives and in those moments of doubt we have two options. We doubt and sink into the waves of the world, or we cry out to our Lord Lord, save me. But sometimes we're going to hear that answer from Christ. This has you have little faith. You have a lot to learn.
Jordan Whiteko:
Father Hamilton or Father Pujol? Why don't you guys tell us a time? Jesus has asked you to get out of the boat.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
I would say a moment for me was whenever I was in college, and so I kind of had a reversion to the faith, when I maybe mentioned in previous podcasts about my own need for self-reliance, and from there the Lord really asked me to go out into the unknown. You know he says Duke and Altum set out into the deep, and for me that was at the end of my freshman year at St Vincent College. You kind of make all these friends. I've just finally settled into everything, yet I'm still getting this calling that maybe I should go be a priest, and so it felt very much like having to step out into something new. I just got rooted and now I'm going to a new college.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
I'm going to seminary in Erie, pennsylvania, with Gannon University, and I'm like just kind of new to my faith in a way, and I don't even know why I'm doing this, but I feel like the Lord's calling me to do it, and from there, keeping my eyes set on the Lord is really why I feel like I'm here today. Every time I started to take notice of all the circumstances and everything else around, and what I wanted, rather than what God wanted, is whenever I felt like I was starting to sink and I was losing the call a little bit, and I think that's true with Peter right when he takes his eyes off Jesus when he's walking on the water is exactly when he starts to sink. He starts to notice all the wind and the scariness of the situation, everything else, and then he sinks. So I just had to keep my eyes focused on God in that time.
Jordan Whiteko:
And we should note that you know he did answer the call that he is the diocese of Greensburg's newest priest, father Andrew Hamilton. Should I add the applause?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Absolutely Very appropriate for a first applause. Thank you, everybody at the studio for applauding, okay.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
It's not a paid audience either.
Jordan Whiteko:
What about you?
Fr. Chris Pujol:
I mean quite literally my second year of seminary or my first year. I was sent to Boy Scout Camp at Canestoga.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Now I this is not a place that Father Chris would have found himself, naturally.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
No, I've definitely never been a Boy Scout. And so I go and it's great, and it was great to you know, minister, to all the young men coming to earn their merit badges and meet the adults who are facilitating everything. But a group of kids convinced me that I should go out on their sailboat with them in the lake, and I thought so this is going to be a literal boat.
Jordan Whiteko:
That's a literal boat water story.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Little did I know that for them to get the Merritt badge they have to capsize the boat multiple times and then you have to flip it and crawl back in and they start rocking the boat. And I'm thinking what?
Jordan Whiteko:
are they doing I?
Fr. Chris Pujol:
said you guys are never going to get a Merritt badge. You're not sailing this thing very good and all of a sudden it flips and it was kind of like that moment. I wasn't expecting it. I kind of panicked. And boom, you go under the water and I can swim. So I swim right back up and they're already back in the boat. I'm like what's going on? And every time I read this gospel passage I think of that experience. Sure, in my life I've had those times where you feel like you're sinking and you don't know what you're doing whether it's transferring seminaries or waiting to get your first assignment and I remember thinking how am I going to even do this? Because you don't really know what's needed until you begin something.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
I feel like all of us, have that right, even if you would remember back to your adolescence.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Oh yeah.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Like big stages when you change from middle school to high school.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Your first middle school dance. How do I dance in the gym?
Jordan Whiteko:
Yeah, how do I find someone to dance with?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Like there's an awkwardness that just is so hard to be.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Father Andrew just stood by the wall.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Oh no, I'm a great dancer, Wallflower.
Jordan Whiteko:
But did people want to dance with you, is the question.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Oh, it doesn't matter, you just throw yourself in there and leave room for the Holy Spirit.
Jordan Whiteko:
There you go. Oh yeah, that was yeah, yeah, so awkward right, I'm sorry, I'm putting my arms out for those listening, yeah, you had to have an arms length.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
And then rock back and forth. So all of us have these experiences and I think, at the end of the day, if we can see that we got up and out of it, it's not by our own initiative we're doing, but the Lord is helping us. In that moment and when we recognize that we see the need for our own humility, where we can begin to work on tamping down our pride which I think your own insufficiency in moments and seeing how God still brought you through that is something that really, really moves you.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
So often we're called to do things that are unexpected, maybe we don't want to. You know, priest transfers just came out, so I'm sure some of our brothers listening are thinking, oh, how am I going to get off the ship of my parish and walk to a new one? But you have to trust that Christ, working in his church, is calling us to go forward and in going forward, the mission continues.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
And no saints were ever made in comfort. No, they're always made in difficulty and strife. If you really look at the stories of the great saints, it's not like I only do what I want to do and therefore I'm glorified or made holy, like in that. It's rather in the suffering and stretching of your spiritual muscle in a way that makes you stronger.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
I had an experience recently, on Memorial Day. I was driving to my parents' house and I was going down the road and out of the corner of my eye I saw this big puff and I told Father this story before and immediately I just stopped the car, pulled over, run out and here it was a motorcycle that had rear-ended at full speed minivan and the man's laying there, the bike's on him, Another man the other direction stops. We get the bike off of him. He's somewhat, he's waking up and I just remember saying to him are you Catholic? And he's saying yes, and before I could do anything I was in my car, had my oils and we were able to give him the sacraments of the church Were you dressed.
Jordan Whiteko:
I wasn't. No, I was in shorts and a t-shirt. I was going boating. Why is this guy asking me if I'm Catholic?
Fr. Chris Pujol:
He's looking like he was going boating. I did, I looked like it, and so you get there. And in those moments it's not the priest who's providing, but it's Christ, in the moment of his darkness, in his accident, that were present and we can be there. And I think that's the great beauty of the Christian life, is that, no matter what's going on, we enter into the moments, the darkness, and we can help others to be raised up and find Christ.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Even in my own life.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Just recently we celebrated the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that was like a really large feast day for me, because whenever I was thinking about leaving seminary, when I was in maybe a couple years and I was transitioning from minor to major seminary, I didn't know if I wanted to be a priest or not.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
But through service to another gentleman who was dying of pancreatic cancer over the summer, giving him communion consistently and speaking about the faith with him until the night that he was on hospice and he moved back to his home and he wanted me to come there and be with him as he was dying, that moment to me was like I'm so insufficient in this moment, like why me? What am I going to say that makes this situation better? Around all of his family and everything. I was so nervous going to his house that I went to the wrong house right next to him on the block and the people were like buddy next door and like that just goes to show you how worked up I was. But in those moments the Lord provides the grace for us.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
And then when we see, on the backside of that, how he's led us through those valleys or through those times of uncertainty, and putting out into the deep is whenever we learn. Okay, this next hurdle is something that the Lord is also going to get me through, and then we can rely more upon him and less upon ourselves.
Jordan Whiteko:
Yeah, thanks for listening to the Catholic accent podcast. Don't forget to follow, like and subscribe to our show.