Storms can often assail us in life, whether it be a personal crisis or global events. The Gospel reminds us that Jesus is always with us in the midst of the storm and will lead us to a place of calm. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.
Readings for Tuesday of the 13th week of ordinary time can be found here.
The British, it is often said, love to talk about the weather. Perhaps the reason is that our climate is so changeable. One minute we are complaining that it’s too wet and chilly for early June, then a couple of weeks later we are all moaning that it’s far too hot. No doubt in a week or two we will all be asking when it will stop raining. “It’s one extreme or the other”, we say; “there’s no happy medium.”
Those who were used to fishing on the Sea of Galilee knew all about changeable weather. The lake’s location, lying 700 feet below sea level and surrounded by hills and valleys, mean that storms can suddenly arise out of nowhere. The storm we read about in today’s Gospel was surely very real, and very scary. But it can also stand as an image for the storms of life that can suddenly come along and disrupt us, just like a sudden British downpour can spoil a lovely spell of warmth and sunshine.
Amos writes of the storms that will engulf the nation of Israel because of its disobedience to God. “I will punish you for all your iniquities”, God says through the prophet, and then asks “Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?”. We might balk at the talk of God punishing a nation for its sins with defeats and disasters. And yet, we cannot deny that in many cases it is the actions of sinful humanity that bring about the storms of catastrophe we see around us today. If people wage war, it should be no surprise that casualties increase and refugees multiply. If we poison the air with pollution, we can hardly complain if climate change results. Yet we often act like these storms come out of nowhere.
In the midst of all the storms we face, personal and global, today’s Gospel reading gives us hope. Jesus is always with us in the midst of the storm. It rages around us and around him, but he gently encourages us to have faith – the faith that he will always be with us, and the faith that he will us through the storm to a time of great calm.
Mass today is in St Mary’s at 6.30pm.
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