We all experience tempests in our lives. Oftentimes they terrify us and challenge our faith. Doubt, uncertainty, guilt, fear and regret raise havoc with our faith. When we are in such a state, we question why God doesn’t reach out and save us from our misery. “He’s sleeping”, we may think, or “He just doesn’t care”. We may even begin to rationalize to the extreme… “God’s not helping because he doesn’t exist” ... Or at the least, “We doubt that he will come to our rescue”. If we let these thoughts gain control over us, they can lead us to utter despair or worse, a complete crisis of faith.
Yet, what do we hear in today’s gospel when the apostles were overcome with fear? We are told not to fear, not to doubt, but rather, “Quiet! Be still”! Listen for that quiet voice within where God speaks to our hearts. When we are overcome by the overwhelming circumstances we can’t avoid, there is something we can do… and that is to listen for that quiet, still voice within us…the promptings of the Holy Spirit who is “nearer to us than we are to ourselves”, in order to tap into an endless supply of Christ’s abiding love to help us persevere until the storms of uncertainty pass us by.
You may recall the expression, “That which does not kill me makes me stronger”. This is true in matters of faith as well. As we grow in our faith, we gradually begin to understand that it is during those dark and uncertain moments that we experience God’s abiding presence, when we are most aware that God is “near to the brokenhearted”. We recognize God’s presence more and more in our lives the more we are tossed about by the sea of life and especially when things are not going our way. Perhaps that’s because when everything around us has failed… when our friends have abandoned us; when we lose our jobs or health or loved ones, and all our life’s work crumbles before our eyes, it is then that we begin to realize that we don’t have the power to fix what’s wrong in our lives or the lives of those we love. It is when we are out of options that we turn to God. It is in times such as these that we are more open to receive what Christ has to offer us…his love, his compassion, his mercy and his promise to be with us when we are most in need.
All of the tempests in our lives have the potential of bringing us closer to Christ if we let them. If Christ truly becomes our rock and our salvation, we will overcome all the stormy weather we encounter as we navigate the waters of this life while keeping our bearings on the only one that maters, Jesus.
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacs engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those thinking of coming into or leaving it.
OTHER RESOURCE
Recommended Reading: Thoughts in Solitude By Thomas Merton addresses the necessity for quiet reflection in an age when so little is private. Thoughts in Solitude stands alongside The Seven Storey Mountain as one of Merton's most urging and popular works. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, is perhaps the foremost spiritual thinker of the twentieth century. His diaries, social commentary, and spiritual writings continue to be widely read after his untimely death in 1968.
Recommended YouTube Video: Authentic Happiness and Human Flourishing Series - Week Two - In this four-week series, Dean Steve Thomason draws on resources from Martin Seligman, Berne Brown and Richard Rohr, using scientific work to explore elements of human experience that lead to authentic happiness, flourishing and deep meaning, and set all that against a backdrop of the gospel as good news, inviting all people into the fullness of life.
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