“In the face of unjust
and painful situations, faith brings us the light which scatters the
darkness….. Faith makes us open to the quiet presence of God at every moment
of our lives, in every person and in every situation.” – Pope Francis: From His
Cuba/U.S. visit in September 2015
Gospel
Text: (MT 8:23-27)
As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples
followed him.
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea,
so that the boat was being swamped by waves;
but he was asleep.
They came and woke him, saying,
“Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you
of little faith?”
Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.
The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man
is this,
whom even the winds and the sea obey?”
Once again, Jesus has to chastise the disciples
for their seeming lack of trust and faith in him! In retrospect, we
really aren’t any different from the disciples in this regard! Like them,
we know deep down that Jesus is in charge, always there for us and trustworthy
and faithful. As the frail human beings we are, we forget, we jump to
conclusions, we quickly judge, we just plain mess up! The scriptures are
filled with the good news that Jesus is all about love, goodness, faith, trust,
forgiveness. He always has our back even when we don’t want to believe
it. It’s easy to trust in his goodness and love for us when things are
going the way we want them to be. But, the first little storm that comes
our way we get all up in arms and cry “ WHY?” and can fall into despair!
What we and these disciples have in common is
the same gracious Lord Jesus. To each of us, no matter what dangers we face and
no matter their origins, He responds by offering the “great calm” that is ours
through faith.
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