Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 4, 2023 - Tuesday in the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 19:15-29 and Matt 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 sea obey?" [Matthew]
I'm sure I have mentioned this before, but each time the above passage - today's gospel scripture - appears, I recall a wall plaque that a friend showed me that had the following words on it: Sometimes the Lord calms the storm; and sometimes the Lord lets the storm rage and calms his child. It appears that Jesus does both in this incident on the sea.
It can be unnerving when someone you know well stays calm when your world is coming apart at the seams! But that may be just what one needs in those circumstances. It may be all that is humanly possible since the weather is beyond human control. Jesus is asleep in a tossing boat and the disciples are terrified! Our response to that may be, "Yes, well, that's easy for him. He's God, isn't he?" The disciples in that boat were not in our position. They ask the question that the whole incident is designed to ask: "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?" Despite all the signs of this kind and healings, the answer to their question will only come with Jesus' death and resurrection.
But we have the perspective of 2000+ years to help us understand the Lord's power and the more than occasional weakness of faith that we experience. Wisdom urges us to have faith in the direst of circumstances. We may think the Lord is asleep and just doesn't understand how we feel when we are terrified by life's challenges. Praying for either the storm to calm down or for ourselves to calm down and start bailing the boat seems the best way forward. But it takes faith that both are possible. Do we have it? On the 4th of July, does our country have it? AMEN