Have you ever been in a boat being tossed around at sea during a violent storm? I have. One time. All I can say is: never again… because it was horrible… and terrifying. This is what Job experienced in the today’s first reading. This is what the Psalmist is describing in our Responsorial Psalm. And this is exactly what the disciples experienced in the Gospel.

A storm at sea is the perfect metaphor for the suffering we endure in life. Suffering, like a storm that enters our lives, is inevitable. It is part of being human and no matter how hard we try, we just can’t avoid it.

But consider this…

In our lives, we seek to create order, predictability, and try to exert some measure of control. This is much like the boat that Jesus and his disciples find themselves in. We set our own small boats out upon an immense sea that we cannot control and which, though we try to steer as best we can through it, can throw high waves, uncertain currents, fierce winds, and a great deal of chaos directly at us. 

In contrast to the storm, I think it’s interesting that Jesus is fast asleep during the violent storm in today’s Gospel, forcing his followers to become incredulous, saying: “… don’t you care that we are perishing?” This is like our own seemingly unanswered prayers. When we suffer… or maybe even more so, when those who we care about are suffering… we pray, sometimes quite fervently, for some kind of relief. And when that relief does not come, we can feel abandoned. We desperately need Christ during these times and maybe wonder whether he hears us at all, whether he cares, whether he is somehow sound asleep in our boat.

In today’s story, Jesus awakens and then calms the sea. If that’s the punchline, the main point, then I think we are left with the impression that if we beg Christ long and hard enough, then he’ll wake up, he’ll eventually help us. And that the quality and intensity of our prayer itself is all that matters. But I think there’s more to it than that. I think the point comes from his two questions: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

“Why are you terrified?” And… “Do you not yet have faith?”

Jesus is telling us that there is a direct relationship between our faith and the amount of fear we experience.

In our boats, on the stormy seas in our lives… Jesus accompanies us. He is right there with us, even when it seems as though he isn’t. 

Jesus taught us – and, more importantly, he showed us – that his Father has a merciful heart. That he is the Good Shepherd who comes after us when we are lost. And that he is the Prodigal Son’s father who waits for us when we wander off. 

I myself would love for God to settle the storms whenever they pick up in my own life, but I am going to work on trusting him more. On being grateful for his accompaniment, his understanding, and his mercy. I am going to try to increase my faith so that I can recognize his presence in my life better… especially in those times when the sky darkens and the winds pick up.

He is with us when our boats are being tossed about.

He is right there next to us.

And I find that to be incredibly comforting.