I do like the story in today’s Gospel about Jesus calming the storm. It is easy for us to imagine the rising panic of the disciples and contrast it with Jesus who is completely at peace with himself as he sleeps in the stern of the boat with his head on a cushion. The Lake of Galilee is relatively shallow and so when the wind whips up the sea can get a bit wild.
A storm can blow up very quickly and this can be quite devastating for boats that cannot find shelter speedily enough. In such a situation panic would be the default emotion. Jesus, however, is not perturbed at all; he sleeps on in the stern of the boat and only wakes when the disciples call him. When he does awake all is done quietly and patiently; he simply rebukes the storm and restores the calm. He then asks them why they are frightened and seems to link this with their lack of faith. Jesus is, of course, the author of creation. As the Son of the Father he was in existence before any of creation was brought into being. He has no fear of weather or of anything else; it does not control him, no, he controls it. I don’t doubt that this incident actually took place; it doesn’t strike me as the sort of thing that the disciples would have invented because it puts them in a bad light, especially the remark by Jesus that they have no faith. No it is a story with the ring of truth about it, especially the little detail about him lying with his head on a cushion. But to me this story has a deeper sense because I think that it has a meaning beyond that particular journey across the Sea of Galilee. I think that we can see this story as an analogy for the storms of life that all of us have to face.
Many of us experience a severe buffeting as we make our journey through life. From time to time in life we suffer illness, loss, pain, separation, straightened circumstances, hardship and so on. I hazard to say that most of us experience several of these things at various points in our life; however there are some people though who, through no fault of their own, experience a whole succession of misfortunes. We all know of people who have suffered a series of close bereavements, or multiple illnesses, or long-lasting financial problems or extreme difficulties with their relationships. We observe how such people seem to constantly be passing from one crisis to the next. Or it could be ourselves who are so unfortunate. These are the storms of life and while we all experience them to some extent certain people surely endure far more than others. In the storm on the Sea of Galilee the disciples panic, they eventually wake Jesus and they ask him a most telling question, “Do you not care?”
They were afraid that the boat would sink. In the face of the storms of life we too frequently panic and often enough the very same question is on our lips. We too ask God in prayer, “Do you not care?” Sometimes when we most need God we feel that he is not there or that he doesn’t care. In addition to the troubles of life we sometimes also feel that God has cast us aside. We come to the conclusion that he has neglected us and that he doesn’t care.
We feel bereft. A woman in a previous parish who had suffered a lot of personal illness and tragedy culminating in the death of both her husband and her son within a few months was talking to me about what she had endured. At one point she shook her fist at heaven and said with strong feeling, “There is nothing more he can throw at me now!” There is always the problem of whether our perception and the actual reality correspond or not. In times of extreme difficulty we may feel that God has deserted us but we need to know whether he actually has or not. We are often so overwhelmed by our feelings and they so hem us in that we cannot easily distinguish the facts of the situation. Sometimes distance is necessary before we can uncover the true reality of the situation. Oftentimes it feels as though God is far away, as if he has pressing concerns on the other side of the world.
Or, as in the Gospel story today, we think he might be asleep in the stern of the boat with his head on a cushion, completely oblivious to the storm which assails us. In the cold light of day we know that to use terms such as near or far away to describe God’s presence is absolutely useless. God is never near or far away; God is always completely present to us. I don’t want to say that God is static but these terms which speak of God’s distance from us do not serve us well. God is always close, always understanding, always healing, always loving, always protecting. What is near or far is our perception of him, our feelings of his closeness or distance. One of the problems that arises when we are experiencing the storms of life is that we think in terms of bad things happening to us. We see loss, illness, pain and so on as negative things. We perceive suffering as something wholly bad.
But when we open the eyes of faith we are able to understand that our sufferings are not actually negative; we come to realise that our sufferings are filled with meaning. In short, they are redemptive. Faith tells us that the seemingly negative things that happen are all part of God’s purposes. These things strengthen us, they test our love, they give us resolve, they make our faith stronger, and they prepare us for heaven. Of course, all this only becomes apparent in perspective. It takes time to work through our sufferings in order to see them in their true light. We will eventually see the hand of God in the so-called misfortunes of life. We will eventually come to realise that God is mysteriously showing his love for us through what we at first thought were things which were wholly negative. We may suffer but we will be vindicated. The Lord will awaken and calm the storms of life enabling us to safely enter our final harbour which is eternal life. It is only then that we will gain true perspective and see our misfortunes for what they really are –signs of God’s great love for us.