Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

In today's Gospel reading from the Gospel of Matthew, we find Jesus asleep in a boat with the other disciples. A storm begins to rage and the disciples become afraid. We might be tempted to read this story as if the disciples were little children afraid of the thunderstorm outside, in need of a parent to comfort them. We should keep in mind, however, that at least some of these men were fishers, and knew how to sail a boat. And what's more, they probably had a lot of experience with storms while fishing. Anyone who has any experience sailing can tell you that storms can be extra dangerous when you're out at sea. One of the parallels for this story in Mark's Gospel uses the Greek word for "earthquake" to describe the storm, so this storm is probably no laughing matter.

In this instance, however, all turns out well. Jesus awakes and calms the storm. He then rebukes the disciples for their little faith. The point is that Jesus is the Lord of the whole world. Whenever danger strikes, or the storms of our lives become too much, we need to keep this in mind.

At one level, God looks down on us as little children frightened by the thunder and lightening, but not because God does not care about our concerns, rather because our concerns usually are not as grave as we take them to be----at least, from God's perspective. At the same time, however, God is concerned with even our least concerns. God loves us as a loving parent, so even our minor scrapes and bruises are important to God.

So often, the outcome is less important than our response to God. Our trust in God, our turning to God in our moments of need, is more important than even living or dying. Living may be a matter of a year, or perhaps 110, and dying a decade, or perhaps the blink of an eye. But our relationship with God is eternal, forever. Whenever hardship strikes, whenever we are frightened, let us turn to God. The Lord Who created everything is there for us, even when we least recognize His presence, or when He appears to be asleep.

Jeff Morrow