WATCHWORD:
23 Then he got into a boat and started across the lake with his disciples. 24 Suddenly a terrible storm came up, with waves higher than the boat. But Jesus was asleep. 25 The disciples went to him and wakened him, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re sinking!” 26 But Jesus answered, “O you men of little faith! Why are you so frightened?” Then he stood up and rebuked the wind and waves, and the storm subsided and all was calm. 27 The disciples just sat there, awed! “Who is this,” they asked themselves, “that even the winds and the sea obey him?” Matthew 8:23-27
Meditation:
Why Are You Afraid?
Here’s a poem by Haruki Murakami:
And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through,
how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, that the storm is over.
But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm,
you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what the storm is all about.
And Jesus asks us, “Why are you so frightened?” and we have no answer because, in our fragile-faith lives, we think it is obvious why we are afraid. As if to reinforce that thought, we look around us and, sure enough, there it is, cause for fear.
But Jesus said something else. Were we listening? Did we hear? He spoke to our storm, to our wind, and waves and fears. Peace, be still and know that I am God. And “and all was calm.”
There is an app you can put on your smart phone called “Calm”. A simple site that sets the stage for you to relax and breathe. We could all benefit by a little of that “Calm” to clear our thinking and deepen our faith.
“Just breathe” is the caption on a shirt worn by my loved one. It is good advice, and it implies a peaceful awareness. We have heard a lot about breath and breathing these past several days. We were in the temple when the breath of God infilled us with the Holy Spirit, Pentecost. The violence and tragedies all around us may cause us to cry out, “I can’t breathe!”
Our fear turns to outrage, and there are times when breathing seems labored. A psychologist would call that anxiety, and we are anxious, and we may despair at the faltering of justice, and we join the disciples in the call, “Lord, save us! We’re sinking!”
And, yet, our Lord still asks us, “Why are you afraid?” And maybe, just maybe, you will say and do, “Alright, Lord, I’ll try it Your way, I’ll give it all to you.”
Bulletin Board:
If you were looking for a Watchword entitled How to Be Nothing, let me re-direct you. In the writing of that meditation on St. Gregory’s Abbey and our experience there, it turned into more of an essay then a devotional. Therefore, I posted it this morning as an essay under the title of Experiencing Nothing. Thanks for your forbearance!
Prayer of The Day:
Heavenly Father, I bring it all to You: my fears, my thoughts, my desperate emotions, my hidden anxieties. I trust You with every open wound and scar and imagined crisis. Hear the cry of my heart and deliver me from my fears, bringing Your healing and hope. In Jesus name, Amen.
