In this weekend’s Gospel we hear that Jesus calms the storm on the sea. The Apostles who were with Him in the boat feared for their lives and woke Jesus believing He could help them out of this dire situation. After Jesus calms the storm He asks them two questions; “Why are you terrified?” and “Do you not yet have faith?”
I believe we all have a “Jesus learning curve.” What I mean by this is each of us comes to know Jesus little by little, learning about Jesus, getting to know how much He loves us and how important our relationship with Him is. The Apostles faced the same thing. They had the good fortune to be physically present with Jesus, yet it took them a long time to understand who Jesus is. They didn’t really grasp that Jesus was God, the second person of the Trinity, until after His resurrection. We may believe that we would have grasped this fact; we would have understood who Jesus is and come to know Him in an intimate relational way. But I think we are fooling ourselves if we believe that. The Apostles knew Jesus had supernatural power; they had seen and witnessed His miracles. Now when they face the powerful storm they know enough to wake Jesus and ask His help. They had matured in their “Jesus learning curve.”
Yet, Jesus asks them about their faith. The Apostles had the right instinct, to go to Jesus asking for help. This is an important step in our faith development, knowing where to go for help. But perhaps Jesus is asking all of us to take the next step, to acknowledge that He is always there with us, ready to calm the storms we face, or help us accept them, if we trust Him. And isn’t that hard for us? To place our trust in Jesus means we must recognize our powerlessness. We don’t want to admit that we are powerless, that would mean we are weak and helpless. Yet, to realize that when we place total trust in Jesus, we then know where our power lies. It is the next step in our own “Jesus learning curve.”
So ask yourself the question Jesus asked His Apostles; “Do you not yet have faith?”
Deacon Ray
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