September 18, 2023 β’ 15 mins
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.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jordan Whiteko (00:00):
You're listening to the Catholic Accent Podcast.
In this podcast, we discuss theacts and miracles that Jesus
performed that stunned hisdisciples.
Today's topic is Storms at Sea.
I'm Jordan Waiko, along withFather Andrew Hamilton and
Father Christopher Pujol.
In Matthew's Gospel there aretwo stories of the disciples
being in a boat at sea during astorm.
(00:20):
Some of these guys werefishermen, so they're probably
used to that, but they'refrightened.
How bad must have the stormbeen to scare them?
Pretty bad.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (00:31):
I would assume that they were tossing
way up and down.
There's a famous painting byRembrandt who does Return of the
?
Prodigal Son.
But it's the Storm of the Seaof Galilee and it has the ship
way up, kind of their boat, wayup in the air, and it's all the
disciples flipping out, and thenyou just have Jesus, very calm
in the midst of everything.
(00:51):
Like you said, with previousexperience on the Sea of Galilee
, these guys would have been insome pretty bad storms within
their lives, so it had to besomething that was outside of
the norm for them to be thatworked up about it?
Jordan Whiteko (01:04):
Oh for sure, for the first account of both of
these stories, jesus calls thestorm to stop at his command.
What would their reaction havebeen seeing Jesus do this?
Fr. Chris Pujol (01:14):
Well, I think it would go to show that he's
the God of all creation, so hisword always denotes an action.
So Jesus is the word that spokecreation into being, and so all
creation responds to hiscommand.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (01:28):
I think it's hard on a human level For
them that walk with Jesus allthe time.
If people have seen, maybe likethe chosen series, they kind of
get into this like essence thatyou see Jesus, you know they're
not just always looking at himas like the divine president in
front of them but they have thispersonal reality right, like
they're bantering back and forth, like that Jesus wouldn't have
been just like serious all thetime, calm, that's not how like
(01:51):
they experienced Jesus.
So they kind of like break fromJesus, just being like one of
them.
To like all of a sudden likewhoa, okay, like we know this
about you, but like you reallyput on everything right now to
show us there's a divinity hereand, of course, calming the
winds like that would have beensomething that no man's doing.
Jordan Whiteko (02:09):
You mentioned.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (02:09):
He was asleep at first In the first
account In the first account.
Jordan Whiteko (02:14):
So they're waking him up?
Oh yeah, and he immediately buthe.
Fr. Chris Pujol (02:19):
It's funny because he kind of yells at the
disciples first.
They're like, instead ofcalming and fixing the situation
.
He says why are you afraid?
You have no faith, I'm herewith you" and then he rebukes
the wind and the sea and calmsit.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (02:36):
And there's kind of an escalation in the
Gospel of Matthew right.
So in chapter 8, that's the onewhere Jesus is in the boat with
them, and then chapter 14,jesus is walking on the water
towards them, but they're in theboat themselves together as the
storms are already tossing themand Jesus isn't there.
Not that Jesus is so muchtesting them, but he says again
to them like oh, ye of littlefaith.
(02:56):
That they should be learningmore as they spend time with
Jesus Like they've seen this onetime before and how it happens,
and he's like, okay, guys thisis how it ends In the second
account, where he's on the water, you know, walking towards them
.
Jordan Whiteko (03:09):
So Jesus is walking on water, like to me I'd
be, like I'd freak out.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (03:13):
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 storiesaround this that it's like a few
miles out.
So I've never seen a sand bar.
Fr. Chris Pujol (03:25):
That just walks through the midst of it.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (03:26):
Yeah, so this is like crazy.
And it's in the midst of thesehuge storms.
So if you think in storms,water's hitting in the face,
everything else, you don't havea clear picture of him coming
from very far away.
So that's why they yell like isit a ghost, Spooky Casper?
Jordan Whiteko (03:41):
So they're two separate days, so what are the
chances that these they will beon the boat in a storm two
separate occasions and Jesus hasto remind them to have faith
and to believe.
Fr. Chris Pujol (03:53):
Yeah, I mean Jordan, have you ever tried to
walk on water?
Jordan Whiteko (03:55):
as kids, we all tried to like I'll straight up,
just run straight from one sideof the pool Walk like running
see if I can.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (04:01):
You're like one of those lizards.
Fr. Chris Pujol (04:02):
Yeah, one of those lizards that could skim
across the water.
But you think every time, everytime.
But the other thing, like as akid 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 (04:15):
And there's.
There were times where I put itin the pool and try to run on
top of it.
Yes, and it still doesn't work.
Fall back Exactly so it was theboat a metaphor for anything?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (04:24):
Yeah, so the ship boat.
It's always been an imageactually of the church itself,
or even sometimes referred to asthe bark.
Be a RQ you eat the bark of.
Peter, because Peter's kind ofthe head of the, the College of
Apostles there and the band ofbrothers of Jesus.
And so when we stay within theboat with Jesus, when in some
sense we're within the church,and then we can go into the
(04:46):
stormy waters.
And you know what happens whenyou're in stormy waters and
Jesus isn't there with you, yousink right and the church never
sinks and, fun fact, the air.
Fr. Chris Pujol (04:56):
Do Jordan?
Do you know the area wherepeople sit and are gathered at
in a church?
Do you know what that area iscalled you?
Mean the pews yeah, but thatthat the Senate answer Jordan.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (05:06):
good answer so what?
Fr. Chris Pujol (05:07):
what is the name of the military branch of
the ocean and the seas?
The Navy, the Navy.
What, then, that area of thechurch is called is the nave
because they say Navy in many oflike 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 thattogether we're in that great
(05:30):
ship of the church movingforward no matter the storms in
Notre Dame in Paris.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (05:36):
you know that famously burnt a couple
years ago.
Yeah, if you would look at iton the river that it's set on
the even the buttresses thatcome down from it, it looks kind
of like a ship, like in thatrow, like you're in the middle
of the storm.
Fr. Chris Pujol (05:49):
You want this boat, you want you want to be in
the church.
Jordan Whiteko (05:51):
You want to be in the church.
So, like Jesus, asks Peter tostep out of the boat and and
walk to him.
Fr. Chris Pujol (06:00):
Jesus didn't ask Peter.
Peter, in his stubbornness,said Lord, command me to come to
you.
And then Jesus said fine, tryme, come on.
And so it's always Peter who'scontinuing to learn these
lessons before he takes on theship of the church himself after
the death and resurrection ofour Lord.
(06:21):
And so Peter, who's alwaysputting his foot in his mouth
and always wanting to be thebest 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 ofhim.
And so, even in this moment,he's like well, make me, I want
(06:43):
to walk on water too.
I mean, it'd be great, we justtalked about it, it'd be fun, it
would be awesome.
Jordan Whiteko (06:47):
Right, like if I could have one superpower,
maybe I would want to you knowwalk on water, it could go
anywhere.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (06:51):
He's trying to show off for the boys,
exactly.
Fr. Chris Pujol (06:54):
Exactly.
And so Peter starts to walk onwater.
He fears and he immediatelysinks.
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 calmseverything.
It's a perfect sign of ourlives.
(07:15):
No matter what happens, we callout for a Lord and he's going
to help us in so many ways.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (07:20):
Peter's using his own self will to walk
beyond the ship and go his ownway.
You know, command, Lord, thatthis 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 theparts of our discipleship which
is not my will be done, but whatwe say in our Father, thy will
be done.
Fr. Chris Pujol (07:41):
And it brings us to the idea of doubt.
You know we're always going tohave doubt in our lives and in
those moments of doubt we havetwo options.
We doubt and sink into thewaves of the world, or we cry
out to our Lord Lord, save me.
But sometimes we're going tohear that answer from Christ.
This has you have little faith.
You have a lot to learn.
Jordan Whiteko (08:02):
Father Hamilton or Father Pujol?
Why don't you guys tell us atime?
Jesus has asked you to get outof the boat.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (08:10):
I would say a moment for me was whenever I
was in college, and so I kind ofhad a reversion to the faith,
when I maybe mentioned inprevious podcasts about my own
need for self-reliance, and fromthere the Lord really asked me
to go out into the unknown.
You know he says Duke and Altumset out into the deep, and for
(08:31):
me that was at the end of myfreshman year at St Vincent
College.
You kind of make all thesefriends.
I've just finally settled intoeverything, yet I'm still
getting this calling that maybeI should go be a priest, and so
it felt very much like having tostep out into something new.
I just got rooted and now I'mgoing to a new college.
I'm going to seminary in Erie,pennsylvania, with Gannon
University, and I'm like justkind of new to my faith in a way
(08:55):
, and I don't even know why I'mdoing this, but I feel like the
Lord's calling me to do it, andfrom there, keeping my eyes set
on the Lord is really why I feellike I'm here today.
Every time I started to takenotice of all the circumstances
and everything else around, andwhat I wanted, rather than what
God wanted, is whenever I feltlike I was starting to sink and
I was losing the call a littlebit, and I think that's true
(09:15):
with Peter right when he takeshis eyes off Jesus when he's
walking on the water is exactlywhen he starts to sink.
He starts to notice all thewind and the scariness of the
situation, everything else, andthen he sinks.
So I just had to keep my eyesfocused on God in that time.
Jordan Whiteko (09:31):
And we should note that you know he did answer
the call that he is the dioceseof Greensburg's newest priest,
father Andrew Hamilton.
Should I add the applause?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (09:40):
Absolutely Very appropriate for a first
applause.
Thank you, everybody at thestudio for applauding, okay.
Fr. Chris Pujol (09:48):
It's not a paid audience either.
Jordan Whiteko (09:52):
What about you?
Fr. Chris Pujol (09:53):
I mean quite literally my second year of
seminary or my first year.
I was sent to Boy Scout Camp atCanestoga.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (10:02):
Now I this is not a place that Father Chris
would have found himself,naturally.
Fr. Chris Pujol (10:06):
No, I've definitely never been a Boy
Scout.
And so I go and it's great, andit was great to you know,
minister, to all the young mencoming to earn their merit
badges and meet the adults whoare facilitating everything.
But a group of kids convincedme that I should go out on their
(10:26):
sailboat with them in the lake,and I thought so this is going
to be a literal boat.
Jordan Whiteko (10:31):
That's a literal boat water story.
Fr. Chris Pujol (10:34):
Little did I know that for them to get the
Merritt badge they have tocapsize the boat multiple times
and then you have to flip it andcrawl back in and they start
rocking the boat.
And I'm thinking what?
Jordan Whiteko (10:47):
are they doing I ?
Fr. Chris Pujol (10:48):
said you guys are never going to get a Merritt
badge.
You're not sailing this thingvery good and all of a sudden it
flips and it was kind of likethat moment.
I wasn't expecting it.
I kind of panicked.
And boom, you go under thewater and I can swim.
So I swim right back up andthey're already back in the boat
.
I'm like what's going on?
And every time I read thisgospel passage I think of that
experience.
(11:08):
Sure, in my life I've had thosetimes where you feel like
you're sinking and you don'tknow what you're doing whether
it's transferring seminaries orwaiting to get your first
assignment and I rememberthinking how am I going to even
do this?
Because you don't really knowwhat's needed until you begin
something.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:27):
I feel like all of us, have that right,
even if you would remember backto your adolescence.
Fr. Chris Pujol (11:32):
Oh yeah.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:33):
Like big stages when you change from
middle school to high school.
Fr. Chris Pujol (11:36):
Your first middle school dance.
How do I dance in the gym?
Jordan Whiteko (11:40):
Yeah, how do I find someone to dance with?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:42):
Like there's an awkwardness that just
is so hard to be.
Fr. Chris Pujol (11:44):
Father Andrew just stood by the wall.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:46):
Oh no, I'm a great dancer, Wallflower.
Jordan Whiteko (11:47):
But did people want to dance with you, is the
question.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:50):
Oh, it doesn't matter, you just throw
yourself in there and leave roomfor the Holy Spirit.
Jordan Whiteko (11:54):
There you go.
Oh yeah, that was yeah, yeah,so awkward right, I'm sorry, I'm
putting my arms out for thoselistening, yeah, you had to have
an arms length.
Fr. Chris Pujol (12:02):
And then rock back and forth.
So all of us have theseexperiences and I think, at the
end of the day, if we can seethat we got up and out of it,
it's not by our own initiativewe're doing, but the Lord is
helping us.
In that moment and when werecognize that we see the need
(12:23):
for our own humility, where wecan begin to work on tamping
down our pride which I thinkyour own insufficiency in
moments and seeing how God stillbrought you through that is
something that really, reallymoves you.
So often we're called to dothings that are unexpected,
maybe we don't want to.
You know, priest transfers justcame out, so I'm sure some of
(12:43):
our brothers listening arethinking, oh, how am I going to
get off the ship of my parishand walk to a new one?
But you have to trust thatChrist, working in his church,
is calling us to go forward andin going forward, the mission
continues.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (12:57):
And no saints were ever made in comfort
.
No, they're always made indifficulty and strife.
If you really look at thestories of the great saints,
it's not like I only do what Iwant to do and therefore I'm
glorified or made holy, like inthat.
It's rather in the sufferingand stretching of your spiritual
muscle in a way that makes youstronger.
Fr. Chris Pujol (13:16):
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 myeye I saw this big puff and I
told Father this story beforeand immediately I just stopped
the car, pulled over, run outand here it was a motorcycle
that had rear-ended at fullspeed minivan and the man's
(13:40):
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 upand I just remember saying to
him are you Catholic?
And he's saying yes, and beforeI could do anything I was in my
car, had my oils and we wereable to give him the sacraments
of the church Were you dressed.
Jordan Whiteko (13:59):
I wasn't.
No, I was in shorts and at-shirt.
I was going boating.
Why is this guy asking me ifI'm Catholic?
Fr. Chris Pujol (14:03):
He's looking like he was going boating.
I did, I looked like it, and soyou get there.
And in those moments it's notthe priest who's providing, but
it's Christ, in the moment ofhis darkness, in his accident,
that were present and we can bethere.
And I think that's the greatbeauty of the Christian life, is
that, no matter what's going on, we enter into the moments, the
(14:24):
darkness, and we can helpothers to be raised up and find
Christ.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (14:29):
Even in my own life.
Just recently we celebrated theassumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary and that was like a reallylarge feast day for me, because
whenever I was thinking aboutleaving seminary, when I was in
maybe a couple years and I wastransitioning from minor to
major seminary, I didn't know ifI wanted to be a priest or not.
But through service to anothergentleman who was dying of
(14:49):
pancreatic cancer over thesummer, giving him communion
consistently and speaking aboutthe faith with him until the
night that he was on hospice andhe moved back to his home and
he wanted me to come there andbe with him as he was dying,
that moment to me was like I'mso insufficient in this moment,
like why me?
What am I going to say thatmakes this situation better?
Around all of his family andeverything.
(15:11):
I was so nervous going to hishouse that I went to the wrong
house right next to him on theblock and the people were like
buddy next door and like thatjust goes to show you how worked
up I was.
But in those moments the Lordprovides the grace for us.
And then when we see, on thebackside of that, how he's led
us through those valleys orthrough those times of
uncertainty, and putting outinto the deep is whenever we
(15:33):
learn.
Okay, this next hurdle issomething that the Lord is also
going to get me through, andthen we can rely more upon him
and less upon ourselves.
Jordan Whiteko (15:42):
Yeah, thanks for listening to the Catholic
accent podcast.
Don't forget to follow, likeand subscribe to our show.
You're listening to the Catholic Accent Podcast.
In this podcast, we discuss theacts and miracles that Jesus
performed that stunned hisdisciples.
Today's topic is Storms at Sea.
I'm Jordan Waiko, along withFather Andrew Hamilton and
Father Christopher Pujol.
In Matthew's Gospel there aretwo stories of the disciples
being in a boat at sea during astorm.
(00:20):
Some of these guys werefishermen, so they're probably
used to that, but they'refrightened.
How bad must have the stormbeen to scare them?
Pretty bad.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (00:31):
I would assume that they were tossing
way up and down.
There's a famous painting byRembrandt who does Return of the
?
Prodigal Son.
But it's the Storm of the Seaof Galilee and it has the ship
way up, kind of their boat, wayup in the air, and it's all the
disciples flipping out, and thenyou just have Jesus, very calm
in the midst of everything.
(00:51):
Like you said, with previousexperience on the Sea of Galilee
, these guys would have been insome pretty bad storms within
their lives, so it had to besomething that was outside of
the norm for them to be thatworked up about it?
Jordan Whiteko (01:04):
Oh for sure, for the first account of both of
these stories, jesus calls thestorm to stop at his command.
What would their reaction havebeen seeing Jesus do this?
Fr. Chris Pujol (01:14):
Well, I think it would go to show that he's
the God of all creation, so hisword always denotes an action.
So Jesus is the word that spokecreation into being, and so all
creation responds to hiscommand.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (01:28):
I think it's hard on a human level For
them that walk with Jesus allthe time.
If people have seen, maybe likethe chosen series, they kind of
get into this like essence thatyou see Jesus, you know they're
not just always looking at himas like the divine president in
front of them but they have thispersonal reality right, like
they're bantering back and forth, like that Jesus wouldn't have
been just like serious all thetime, calm, that's not how like
(01:51):
they experienced Jesus.
So they kind of like break fromJesus, just being like one of
them.
To like all of a sudden likewhoa, okay, like we know this
about you, but like you reallyput on everything right now to
show us there's a divinity hereand, of course, calming the
winds like that would have beensomething that no man's doing.
Jordan Whiteko (02:09):
You mentioned.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (02:09):
He was asleep at first In the first
account In the first account.
Jordan Whiteko (02:14):
So they're waking him up?
Oh yeah, and he immediately buthe.
Fr. Chris Pujol (02:19):
It's funny because he kind of yells at the
disciples first.
They're like, instead ofcalming and fixing the situation
.
He says why are you afraid?
You have no faith, I'm herewith you" and then he rebukes
the wind and the sea and calmsit.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (02:36):
And there's kind of an escalation in the
Gospel of Matthew right.
So in chapter 8, that's the onewhere Jesus is in the boat with
them, and then chapter 14,jesus is walking on the water
towards them, but they're in theboat themselves together as the
storms are already tossing themand Jesus isn't there.
Not that Jesus is so muchtesting them, but he says again
to them like oh, ye of littlefaith.
(02:56):
That they should be learningmore as they spend time with
Jesus Like they've seen this onetime before and how it happens,
and he's like, okay, guys thisis how it ends In the second
account, where he's on the water, you know, walking towards them
.
Jordan Whiteko (03:09):
So Jesus is walking on water, like to me I'd
be, like I'd freak out.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (03:13):
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 storiesaround this that it's like a few
miles out.
So I've never seen a sand bar.
Fr. Chris Pujol (03:25):
That just walks through the midst of it.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (03:26):
Yeah, so this is like crazy.
And it's in the midst of thesehuge storms.
So if you think in storms,water's hitting in the face,
everything else, you don't havea clear picture of him coming
from very far away.
So that's why they yell like isit a ghost, Spooky Casper?
Jordan Whiteko (03:41):
So they're two separate days, so what are the
chances that these they will beon the boat in a storm two
separate occasions and Jesus hasto remind them to have faith
and to believe.
Fr. Chris Pujol (03:53):
Yeah, I mean Jordan, have you ever tried to
walk on water?
Jordan Whiteko (03:55):
as kids, we all tried to like I'll straight up,
just run straight from one sideof the pool Walk like running
see if I can.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (04:01):
You're like one of those lizards.
Fr. Chris Pujol (04:02):
Yeah, one of those lizards that could skim
across the water.
But you think every time, everytime.
But the other thing, like as akid 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 (04:15):
And there's.
There were times where I put itin the pool and try to run on
top of it.
Yes, and it still doesn't work.
Fall back Exactly so it was theboat a metaphor for anything?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (04:24):
Yeah, so the ship boat.
It's always been an imageactually of the church itself,
or even sometimes referred to asthe bark.
Be a RQ you eat the bark of.
Peter, because Peter's kind ofthe head of the, the College of
Apostles there and the band ofbrothers of Jesus.
And so when we stay within theboat with Jesus, when in some
sense we're within the church,and then we can go into the
(04:46):
stormy waters.
And you know what happens whenyou're in stormy waters and
Jesus isn't there with you, yousink right and the church never
sinks and, fun fact, the air.
Fr. Chris Pujol (04:56):
Do Jordan?
Do you know the area wherepeople sit and are gathered at
in a church?
Do you know what that area iscalled you?
Mean the pews yeah, but thatthat the Senate answer Jordan.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (05:06):
good answer so what?
Fr. Chris Pujol (05:07):
what is the name of the military branch of
the ocean and the seas?
The Navy, the Navy.
What, then, that area of thechurch is called is the nave
because they say Navy in many oflike 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 thattogether we're in that great
(05:30):
ship of the church movingforward no matter the storms in
Notre Dame in Paris.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (05:36):
you know that famously burnt a couple
years ago.
Yeah, if you would look at iton the river that it's set on
the even the buttresses thatcome down from it, it looks kind
of like a ship, like in thatrow, like you're in the middle
of the storm.
Fr. Chris Pujol (05:49):
You want this boat, you want you want to be in
the church.
Jordan Whiteko (05:51):
You want to be in the church.
So, like Jesus, asks Peter tostep out of the boat and and
walk to him.
Fr. Chris Pujol (06:00):
Jesus didn't ask Peter.
Peter, in his stubbornness,said Lord, command me to come to
you.
And then Jesus said fine, tryme, come on.
And so it's always Peter who'scontinuing to learn these
lessons before he takes on theship of the church himself after
the death and resurrection ofour Lord.
(06:21):
And so Peter, who's alwaysputting his foot in his mouth
and always wanting to be thebest 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 ofhim.
And so, even in this moment,he's like well, make me, I want
(06:43):
to walk on water too.
I mean, it'd be great, we justtalked about it, it'd be fun, it
would be awesome.
Jordan Whiteko (06:47):
Right, like if I could have one superpower,
maybe I would want to you knowwalk on water, it could go
anywhere.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (06:51):
He's trying to show off for the boys,
exactly.
Fr. Chris Pujol (06:54):
Exactly.
And so Peter starts to walk onwater.
He fears and he immediatelysinks.
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 calmseverything.
It's a perfect sign of ourlives.
(07:15):
No matter what happens, we callout for a Lord and he's going
to help us in so many ways.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (07:20):
Peter's using his own self will to walk
beyond the ship and go his ownway.
You know, command, Lord, thatthis 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 theparts of our discipleship which
is not my will be done, but whatwe say in our Father, thy will
be done.
Fr. Chris Pujol (07:41):
And it brings us to the idea of doubt.
You know we're always going tohave doubt in our lives and in
those moments of doubt we havetwo options.
We doubt and sink into thewaves of the world, or we cry
out to our Lord Lord, save me.
But sometimes we're going tohear that answer from Christ.
This has you have little faith.
You have a lot to learn.
Jordan Whiteko (08:02):
Father Hamilton or Father Pujol?
Why don't you guys tell us atime?
Jesus has asked you to get outof the boat.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (08:10):
I would say a moment for me was whenever I
was in college, and so I kind ofhad a reversion to the faith,
when I maybe mentioned inprevious podcasts about my own
need for self-reliance, and fromthere the Lord really asked me
to go out into the unknown.
You know he says Duke and Altumset out into the deep, and for
(08:31):
me that was at the end of myfreshman year at St Vincent
College.
You kind of make all thesefriends.
I've just finally settled intoeverything, yet I'm still
getting this calling that maybeI should go be a priest, and so
it felt very much like having tostep out into something new.
I just got rooted and now I'mgoing to a new college.
I'm going to seminary in Erie,pennsylvania, with Gannon
University, and I'm like justkind of new to my faith in a way
(08:55):
, and I don't even know why I'mdoing this, but I feel like the
Lord's calling me to do it, andfrom there, keeping my eyes set
on the Lord is really why I feellike I'm here today.
Every time I started to takenotice of all the circumstances
and everything else around, andwhat I wanted, rather than what
God wanted, is whenever I feltlike I was starting to sink and
I was losing the call a littlebit, and I think that's true
(09:15):
with Peter right when he takeshis eyes off Jesus when he's
walking on the water is exactlywhen he starts to sink.
He starts to notice all thewind and the scariness of the
situation, everything else, andthen he sinks.
So I just had to keep my eyesfocused on God in that time.
Jordan Whiteko (09:31):
And we should note that you know he did answer
the call that he is the dioceseof Greensburg's newest priest,
father Andrew Hamilton.
Should I add the applause?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (09:40):
Absolutely Very appropriate for a first
applause.
Thank you, everybody at thestudio for applauding, okay.
Fr. Chris Pujol (09:48):
It's not a paid audience either.
Jordan Whiteko (09:52):
What about you?
Fr. Chris Pujol (09:53):
I mean quite literally my second year of
seminary or my first year.
I was sent to Boy Scout Camp atCanestoga.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (10:02):
Now I this is not a place that Father Chris
would have found himself,naturally.
Fr. Chris Pujol (10:06):
No, I've definitely never been a Boy
Scout.
And so I go and it's great, andit was great to you know,
minister, to all the young mencoming to earn their merit
badges and meet the adults whoare facilitating everything.
But a group of kids convincedme that I should go out on their
(10:26):
sailboat with them in the lake,and I thought so this is going
to be a literal boat.
Jordan Whiteko (10:31):
That's a literal boat water story.
Fr. Chris Pujol (10:34):
Little did I know that for them to get the
Merritt badge they have tocapsize the boat multiple times
and then you have to flip it andcrawl back in and they start
rocking the boat.
And I'm thinking what?
Jordan Whiteko (10:47):
are they doing I ?
Fr. Chris Pujol (10:48):
said you guys are never going to get a Merritt
badge.
You're not sailing this thingvery good and all of a sudden it
flips and it was kind of likethat moment.
I wasn't expecting it.
I kind of panicked.
And boom, you go under thewater and I can swim.
So I swim right back up andthey're already back in the boat
.
I'm like what's going on?
And every time I read thisgospel passage I think of that
experience.
(11:08):
Sure, in my life I've had thosetimes where you feel like
you're sinking and you don'tknow what you're doing whether
it's transferring seminaries orwaiting to get your first
assignment and I rememberthinking how am I going to even
do this?
Because you don't really knowwhat's needed until you begin
something.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:27):
I feel like all of us, have that right,
even if you would remember backto your adolescence.
Fr. Chris Pujol (11:32):
Oh yeah.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:33):
Like big stages when you change from
middle school to high school.
Fr. Chris Pujol (11:36):
Your first middle school dance.
How do I dance in the gym?
Jordan Whiteko (11:40):
Yeah, how do I find someone to dance with?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:42):
Like there's an awkwardness that just
is so hard to be.
Fr. Chris Pujol (11:44):
Father Andrew just stood by the wall.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:46):
Oh no, I'm a great dancer, Wallflower.
Jordan Whiteko (11:47):
But did people want to dance with you, is the
question.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (11:50):
Oh, it doesn't matter, you just throw
yourself in there and leave roomfor the Holy Spirit.
Jordan Whiteko (11:54):
There you go.
Oh yeah, that was yeah, yeah,so awkward right, I'm sorry, I'm
putting my arms out for thoselistening, yeah, you had to have
an arms length.
Fr. Chris Pujol (12:02):
And then rock back and forth.
So all of us have theseexperiences and I think, at the
end of the day, if we can seethat we got up and out of it,
it's not by our own initiativewe're doing, but the Lord is
helping us.
In that moment and when werecognize that we see the need
(12:23):
for our own humility, where wecan begin to work on tamping
down our pride which I thinkyour own insufficiency in
moments and seeing how God stillbrought you through that is
something that really, reallymoves you.
So often we're called to dothings that are unexpected,
maybe we don't want to.
You know, priest transfers justcame out, so I'm sure some of
(12:43):
our brothers listening arethinking, oh, how am I going to
get off the ship of my parishand walk to a new one?
But you have to trust thatChrist, working in his church,
is calling us to go forward andin going forward, the mission
continues.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (12:57):
And no saints were ever made in comfort
.
No, they're always made indifficulty and strife.
If you really look at thestories of the great saints,
it's not like I only do what Iwant to do and therefore I'm
glorified or made holy, like inthat.
It's rather in the sufferingand stretching of your spiritual
muscle in a way that makes youstronger.
Fr. Chris Pujol (13:16):
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 myeye I saw this big puff and I
told Father this story beforeand immediately I just stopped
the car, pulled over, run outand here it was a motorcycle
that had rear-ended at fullspeed minivan and the man's
(13:40):
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 upand I just remember saying to
him are you Catholic?
And he's saying yes, and beforeI could do anything I was in my
car, had my oils and we wereable to give him the sacraments
of the church Were you dressed.
Jordan Whiteko (13:59):
I wasn't.
No, I was in shorts and at-shirt.
I was going boating.
Why is this guy asking me ifI'm Catholic?
Fr. Chris Pujol (14:03):
He's looking like he was going boating.
I did, I looked like it, and soyou get there.
And in those moments it's notthe priest who's providing, but
it's Christ, in the moment ofhis darkness, in his accident,
that were present and we can bethere.
And I think that's the greatbeauty of the Christian life, is
that, no matter what's going on, we enter into the moments, the
(14:24):
darkness, and we can helpothers to be raised up and find
Christ.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton (14:29):
Even in my own life.
Just recently we celebrated theassumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary and that was like a reallylarge feast day for me, because
whenever I was thinking aboutleaving seminary, when I was in
maybe a couple years and I wastransitioning from minor to
major seminary, I didn't know ifI wanted to be a priest or not.
But through service to anothergentleman who was dying of
(14:49):
pancreatic cancer over thesummer, giving him communion
consistently and speaking aboutthe faith with him until the
night that he was on hospice andhe moved back to his home and
he wanted me to come there andbe with him as he was dying,
that moment to me was like I'mso insufficient in this moment,
like why me?
What am I going to say thatmakes this situation better?
Around all of his family andeverything.
(15:11):
I was so nervous going to hishouse that I went to the wrong
house right next to him on theblock and the people were like
buddy next door and like thatjust goes to show you how worked
up I was.
But in those moments the Lordprovides the grace for us.
And then when we see, on thebackside of that, how he's led
us through those valleys orthrough those times of
uncertainty, and putting outinto the deep is whenever we
(15:33):
learn.
Okay, this next hurdle issomething that the Lord is also
going to get me through, andthen we can rely more upon him
and less upon ourselves.
Jordan Whiteko (15:42):
Yeah, thanks for listening to the Catholic
accent podcast.
Don't forget to follow, likeand subscribe to our show.
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