Our life is filled with many storms that we must each endure. The storms that rise up from within our life can seem to be to intense at times to be able to endure them. Also, when we are caught up in these most intense of storms it can seem that we have been left all alone with nobody that we can turn to for assistance. These storms that arise in our life are equal to what the apostles felt in our Gospel. They felt like they were left all alone to figure things out for themselves and they were also filled with great fear as the storm arose inside of their life. This was a most scary event for each them, and yet Christ came from the midst of this storm to bring calmness to the storm that had arisen in each of their lives. This is the same calmness that Christ desires to bring into our own life if only we would be willing to allow Him to enter into the great storms of our own life to usher peace into our midst as He did for each of His apostles.
This storm would be the first of many that the apostles would have to endure. They were filled with fear on this day due to the intensity of the waters. In the future they would be filled with fear when they would be instructed that Christ must die, they would be filled with fear at the moment of the crucifixion, they would be filled with fear at the news of the Resurrection, and surely they were filled with fear when they embraced their own martyrdom. These were only a few of the many storms that would arise within the life of the apostles and we to can add to this list of fears by adding the many storms that arise not only in our own life, but also those that exist in this world. For example we know the great storm that Christians in other nations may need to face each day due to the faith that they proclaim. We to have storms in our life which might deal with our struggle against sin, our concern for family members who have fallen away from the faith, our sadness at the loss of a loved one, and the knowledge of our own mortality. These are only a few of the many storms in our life and from within this world that we may face.
We will also notice that this storm that came to encompass the apostles came during the absence of Christ from their midst. From a physical standpoint, yes, He was no longer with them because He had went off by Himself to pray, but in all reality He was still present because as we know Christ is not just human, but is also divine. If the apostles would of come to understand this great truth of who Christ really was they would of been given no reason for fear because they would of realized that Christ was still with each of them even during those moments of His physical absence. May this lesson that the apostles slowly came to understand also play out in the depths of our own hearts. It is easy when things around us get to be to tough to endure that we allow ourself to lose hope to the point where we are unable to see that the storm present inside of our life can and will be calmed. May we each realize that we have not been left alone to calm these storms by ourself, because Christ is here, and is with us, and He desires to be the one to calm these storms and to give us hope.
With this hope placed within our hearts we must trust with great faith that these storms will be calmed. We must realize that it is faith which is constantly challenging each of us to grow deeper in our relationship with Christ. Christ desired that His own apostles would come to this realization and in return they would journey towards this same understanding of faith. Therefore He questions Saint Peter in these words: "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" We to must ask this question in our own minds because we so often feel that we never need to grow in our faith. We cannot set out looking back to the boat. Instead we are constantly in need of growing in our faith and coming to discover and to trust that Christ can indeed come to bring calm to any storm that can arise inside of our life. We must come to this realization of faith by abandoning our old way of life completely and then we can move forward with pure trust placed in Christ.
This day may each of us be given the grace that is necessary to overcome each storm that will arise in our life with great faith. May we remember that in all of these storms that we will face that we have not been left alone because Christ is truly present with us even if we don't realize it. May we also continue to grow in our faith that each day we may be willing to leave our relationship to sin and doubt behind, in order that we may truly set out upon the waters of these storms, thus allowing ourself to come and to embrace Christ, who is able to bring calm to any storm that will ever arise in our life. We must remember in each of these storms, Elijah, who heard the sound of The Lord within the whispering of the wind, thus it is also for us because in the smallest of places we are able to allow our faith to grow manifest. May we truly allow our faith to grow manifest where calmness may be brought to each storm that will ever arise within our life.
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