Monday, June 22, 2009

Physical and Spiritual Storms

I realize I'm a day behind on my posts but--well I procrastinate so please forgive me. It IS the Christian way.

It was a blistering hot day here in Missouri yesterday but the Sunday readings were very stormy. The first reading was from Job (Job 38: 8-11) and the Lord talks about how He controls the seas. In the responsorial psalms, the psalmist speaks about a storm in which God saves sailors from a storm and how they rejoiced and gave thanks to the Lord. Finally in the Gospel, (Mark 4:35-41) the disciples were in a boat with Jesus when a storm arose. Jesus was asleep and they woke Him. He rebuked the wind and told the sea, "Quiet, be still." There was calm and Jesus asked the disciples, "Why are you terrified. Do you not yet have faith?" The disciples asked themselves, "Who then is this whom even the wind and sea obey?"

We must maintain our faith even when things are rough. We must realize that God is in control. If He tells the sea where to stop and where to begin, if He can make the wind and sea obey why do we lose faith that He won't take care of us? And do you think he could drop the temperature about 20 degrees?

It's not always an easy task though. We suffer through physical or emotional pain and it's the time when we must show discipline and rededicate ourselves to God instead of trying to do it on our own. St. Josemaria Escriva said, "Some worries can be remedied immediately. Others, not so quickly. But they are all solved if we are faithful, if we obey, and carry out what has been proposed to us." - #376-Furrow.

How we deal with our own personal storms is a reoccurring theme in the interior life and we have to be reminded that God gives us storms but we have remind ourselves that He will see us through them. We need to maintain faith, pray and recall that we know "who then is this whom even the wind and sea obey?"

Pray

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