Do you often doubt God’s presence in your life? Is your faith still too weak to face stormy times without directly feeling God’s presence? - Daily Reflections January 8,2014

FACING STORMS

 

Today, the Gospel brings us in a boat on the Lake of Galilee, where the disciples of Jesus were struggling against a strong wind. Jesus had remained ashore to be with His Father in prayer. St. Mark illustrates the scene as if he were describing the Christian community, or us, in the boat of the Church, struggling to cross over to eternity. Was there ever a time when the winds of time and ideologies were not against the Church? Was there a period when we did not experience obstacles to our faith, to our effort to live out our Christianity in an unchristian world? Yes, the wind was, is and always will be against all that Christ and His Church stands for.

       The disciples in the boat felt abandoned. Where was Jesus? He had preached and healed the whole day, fed the crowds, and now, when His closest friends were in trouble, He was not there. We often experience this, too. We feel Christ close to us when things go well. But we feel lonely and abandoned when moments of apparent absence of Christ come.

       Our faith tells us that Christ is always close to us, that He is always with us. Did He not promise, “I will be with you always until the end of time”? The test is this: Is our faith strong enough to trust that, even in our darkest moments, God knows what we are going through and that He is near to us?

       When St. Mark writes, “Jesus could see they were worn out,” he indicates that, though physically absent, Jesus was spiritually present and knew about their situation. To assure them of His constant presence and concern, He cut short His time with His Father and showed Himself to them.      A friend of mine copied today’s Gospel passage and always carries it with him. The story of Jesus, consoling and helping His friends, gives him the strength to cling to his faith in God’s loving care and presence.

       Who is the little child born in a simple cave? Why did God become one of us in Jesus? Mark tells us, it is so that He would be our Emmanuel, our “God with us.” Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Do you often doubt God’s presence in your life? Is your faith still too weak to face stormy times without directly feeling God’s presence?

 

Lord, I thank You for reminding me today of Your constant presence. Strengthen my faith, especially in moments when it becomes difficult to trust in You.