Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
How often do we, overcome with worry, cry out to God “…do you not care that we are perishing?” We worry about our country, our world, our Church, and wonder where God is, allowing the noise of the world’s predictable chaos and rebellion to drown out the rock-solid promise of Jesus “Behold, I am with you always…” (Matthew 28:20).
In our Gospel today the apostles are terrified because they are caught out in the open sea on a fishing boat, and there is a storm. Water is crashing into the boat and filling it; it is nighttime and the shore is still a long way off. They are so concerned about the storm and the possibility of sinking that they do not consider the importance of Jesus being asleep.
Do they really believe that Jesus would sleep through such an event if there was even the remotest possibility that the boat would sink? He knew that in spite of how things seemed, everything would be all right and there was no need to fear; He did not awaken to rebuke the storm because He knew there was no need. Sure it would be difficult and frightening to endure, but there was no need to succumb to that fear.
When we are stressed out, afraid, uncertain, because it seems like the world is crashing down around our ears, we might do well to take the time to consider where Jesus is asleep in our lives, where He is at peace in the midst of seeming chaos. Imagine being on that boat and, seeing Jesus peacefully asleep in the storm, going to lie next to Him, trusting that if He is at peace, then I may be as well.