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June 22, 2015In the first scripture reading, Job suffers great calamities – the death of children, destruction of property, and debilitating illness. He asks the question WHY in the sense why do good people endure such hardships in life? That is our question as well. God speaks to Job and asks him to trust in God when we don’t understand why bad things happen to good people.
The Job reading prepares for the Gospel. The disciples were traveling in a boat on the Sea of Galilee that seems unequal to the weather it faces. And so, a violent storm are and the waves came crashing in over the side of the boat. The disciples were in a state of panic fearing for their lives.
That boat on the Sea of Galilee symbolizes ourselves and our Church as we seem overwhelmed by the storms of life? The storminess on the Sea of Galilee represent all those situations in life that cause us to be fearful. The disciples were concerned about the inaction of Jesus who was asleep in the back of the boat. From the disciples’ perspectives, Jesus wasn’t getting it. “Houston, we have a problem.” The disciples wanted immediate action from Jesus. The disciples had lost the confidence of their prayer life and the question they asked took on the tone of a hostile accusation: “Teacher, don’t you care about the crisis we are facing?
Can we identify with the fear of the apostles about the seeming absence of Jesus at times in our life? In what situations do we lose the confidence of prayer and resort to fear and anxiety? When it comes to the health of our children, when it comes to a break in a significant relationship, when it comes to job pressure, money pressures, when it comes slipping into fear and depression, do we wonder whether the boat we are in can withstand the storms of life? For the first disciples and for us who also are disciples of the Lord Jesus, Jesus calls us back to our true center with two tough questions: What are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?
I invite you to consider the temptations of your life as the violent squall and the surging sea that threaten us and make us fearful. When we’re insulted, it’s like being buffeted by winds? When we’re angered, it’s like being tossed about by waves. When we’re insulted, our natural instinct is revenge. But revenge produces an even worse situation – shipwreck. Consider temptations as windy squalls and surging seas. In these situations of fearfulness, do what the disciples did. Wake up Jesus who is asleep in our hearts. Then like the wind and sea, we are called to quiet down and be still and trust that Jesus who is the master of the sea and the waves is the Lord and Savior of your life.
May our daily prayer invite Jesus to calm the storms of life we are facing and trust that Jesus is awake and knows very well that we are God’s beloved. What will it take to convert our fears and anxieties to trust and faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior?
Psychiatrists tell us that toxic fear and worry is a disease of the imagination. Fear robs us of the inner peace we seek. It keeps us from enjoying the present moment. How much of our lives is controlled by the fear of what might go wrong?
The very first words out of the mouth of the angel Gabriel when he speaks to Mary are: “Do not be afraid.” Scripture scholars tell us those four words are repeated 365 times in the Scriptures. Why so much attention to the single emotion of fear? Fear cripples our ability to become transformed – which is the whole purpose of the Gospel and of the coming of Jesus Christ into our anxiety-ridden world. Jesus is focused: we cannot move forward in faith until we have learned how to deal with our fears.
In his newly released encyclical, Laudato Si: On the Care of our Common Home, Pope Francis describes our earthly pilgrimage as journeying towards the Sabbath of eternity, the new Jerusalem, our common home in heaven. Quoting his patron’s famous and lovely hymn praising God through “Brother Wind” and “Sister Water,” Pope Francis bids us imitate St. Francis of Assisi’s graced ability to see all of nature as a wondrous book in which God speaks to us and permits us to glimpsed God’s infinite beauty and goodness. Pope Francis calls to be good stewards of God’s creation. May we praise in the beauty of all of creation, and may we trust in God in dealing with the fears and storminess of life. The Sea of Galilee is a gift of God to us for its beauty, and the storminess of the sea is our challenges to convert the fears of life into trust in His abiding presence in our life. Like Job
The Gospel calls us to mindful of God’s faithfulness towards us but also of our obligation to come to the aid of others sailing fearfully through stormy waters who may appreciate the compassionate care and presence of a calming friend and a fellow traveler.
