Daily Gospel Reflection

Faith in the Storm

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. I'm Matthew Kelly. Let's see what genius the gospel has to share with us today. The reading is from the Gospel of Mark chapter 4, verses 35 through 41. On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd, they took him with them, just as he was in the boat. And other boats were with him. And a great storm of winter rose, and the waves beat into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care if we perish?" And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace, be still." And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?" And they were filled with awe and said to one another, "Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?" So remember, we're always looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea.

The idea that strikes me today is that this conversation or this interaction that takes place between Jesus and the disciples has taken place a billion times, probably, in the history of Christianity. Because how often, as a person, experienced this, there's a storm in their life-- a great storm in their life, and the winds are rising, and the waves are beating against the boat of their life, and then their life starts to take on water, and their life is filling up. And they come to God, and they say, "God, don't you even care? I'm about to perish. Don't you even care?" And I think that conversation, it's easy to fall into that conversation with God. It's easy to fall into that sort of victimhood in our prayer with God. And of course, Jesus calms things down and asks the disciples, "Why are you afraid? Where is your faith?"

And it's easy to have faith when everything's going well in your life. It's when things start to fall apart-- it's when there's a real serious crisis or problem in our lives that our faith gets tested. And the faith of disciples is getting tested today. And so, the question I ask you is, how is your faith being tested at this time in your life? And how are you responding to that? And how maybe is today's gospel calling you to respond to that in a different way or in a new way? Have a great day. Don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.