Earlier this week we heard at Mass how Jesus meets us in the challenges we face. He invites us, through Him, to rise above what would drag us down.
In the Gospel that day, we were reminded that
Jesus made the disciples get into a boat
and precede Him to the other side of the sea,
while He dismissed the crowds.
After doing so, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray.
When it was evening He was there alone.
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore,
was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night,
He came toward them, walking on the sea.
When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea
they were terrified.
"It's a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear.
At once Jesus spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I;
do not be afraid."
Peter said to Him in reply, "Lord, if it is you,
command me to come to You on the water."
He said, "Come."
But when he saw how strong the wind was
he became frightened;
and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"
Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him,
and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
After they got into the boat, the wind died down.
Those who were in the boat did Him homage, saying,
"Truly, You Are the Son of God."
After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret.
When the men of that place recognized Him,
they sent word to all the surrounding country.
People brought to Him all those who were sick
and begged Him
that they might touch only the tassel on His cloak,
and as many as touched it were healed.*
Jesus sent the disciples out onto the sea. God knows what is going to happen. God lets us go through trials. We go through fire and water.** Through tribulation we are tested. At times we are refined, but not like silver, rather in a furnace of affliction.*** At other times, God tries us as silver is tried in fire,**** polishes us like silver, to become ever more beautiful. In all that tries us, God is giving us oil to make our faces shine.***** Through all that tests us, God makes us more luminous because God is strengthening us. In giving us the grace to do what we could not do ourselves, God is thus glorified. As God is glorified through us, we become more beautiful, because we are reflecting the magnificence of God.
Of course the disciples probably were not thinking thus in the midst of their rowing across the sea as they were being tossed by the waves. So often, we do not think about the benefits God is bestowing on us as we are enduring hardship.
When the disciples saw Jesus, they fearfully cried out. Indeed, we can become so absorbed in the struggle that we do not even recognize Jesus, that we forget that Jesus is with us always.******
Jesus is not only there with us every moment as we are being tested; He is there for us to step toward Him in faith, as frightening and impossible as that may seem to us through our impaired vision. He bids us come to Him as He bid Peter to come to Him.
Peter sank because he took his eyes off Jesus. He started focusing on the wind instead of on Jesus, and consequently he gave into fear. When we take our eyes off of Jesus, we sink.
Jesus wants us to rise above what would drag us down, to remain above it all by keeping focused on Him, by fixing our attention so much on Him that we remain in Him and He remains in us.******* If we remain in Him and He remains in us, we will stay above all that would pull us down since we totally trust in Him.
We remain in Him, we abide in Him and He abides in us, when we live in faith. If we embrace the gift of faith that God has planted in us, we will remain above all that would drag us down.
In the midst of these challenging days of the coronavirus, how are we responding? Someone asked me if I have been praying for a cure for the coronavirus. Sure, it's well and good to pray for a cure for the coronavirus and for all that threatens our physical health.
However, if all we do is pray for a medical cure, it's tantamount to saying to God only, "God, get me out of this situation that is such a problem." It's implicitly telling God that we're not interested in how God wants us to learn and grow through the coronavirus.
We can only cry out for God to catch us so we don't sink. When waves threaten to drown us, we can pray not only that we not be engulfed by the waves. Frankly, though, if we nurture and cultivate the gift of faith that God has given us, we're not going to be desperately crying out to God. If we embrace the gift of faith that God has given us, we're going to be calmly and confidently turning to God for the strengthening and sustenance and grace that we're sure God is going to give us, and that God is already giving us.
We can prepare for such challenging times in advance. We can decide ahead of time how we want to respond. We can visualize in our mind's eye being in the midst of a storm and feeling assured of God's support of us. We can envision the storm raging around us as we serenely step toward Jesus, having already chosen to keep our eyes on Jesus.
We turn to God. God reaches to us. God holds us up.
* Matthew 14:22-36
** Psalm 66:12
*** Isaiah 48:10
****Psalm 66:10
****Psalm 66:10
***** Psalm 104:15
****** Matthew 28:20
******* John 15:4, 5, 6, 7
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