Have you ever been scared that you piss yourself, your heart pump 100kmh? What did you
do during that very moment? What do you do when you are afraid? In A Grief Observed, C.s.
Lewis writes, “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or
falsehood becomes a matter of life and death…. Only real risk test the reality of a belief.”
The gospel of today we see the disciples eyes open wide, staring death face to face. These are
the very men who saw all mighty things Jesus did. They had followed him all through, they
saw him rebuke demons and heal the sick, not even talking about raising the dead. They saw
him teach very different from the teachers of their time. He taught with authority. They surely
realized their new friend was really a gift to them. But something wasn’t adding up. In this
story, and right up to the resurrection, they didn’t really “GET IT” – that Jesus was the
Messiah, God’s Son.
A song writer wrote a song that read, “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. A long way
from home, sometime I feel like I’m almost done and a long way from home” sometime we
too are in that moment. Even after receiving tremendous blessings from God. After He has
revealed Himself to us in a thousand occasions. We still cannot ‘get it’. We keep crying
thinking He will never help. Thinking we are motherless.
The gospel for today’s Mass readings is the story of how Jesus calmed the storm after the
apostles freaked the heck out because He was taking a nap and they thought they were gonna
die.
Faith is a gift God freely gives to each one of us. Sometimes it’s easy to accept that gift. Like
when life is beautiful, and everything is grand, and the sun is shining so brilliantly it seems as
though it could never disappear again behind stormy clouds.
And sometimes – sometimes it’s oh-so-hard to accept that gift of faith. Like when you lose
your job. Or a dear friendship ends. Or your physical or mental health crashes. Or when you
look at the world and it seems so overwhelmingly terrible that nothing could possibly be
done. When the storms of life seem endless, and as though there will never be sun again.
And truthfully, I don’t have any magic words for how to radically choose to accept the gift of
faith in the storms. All I have to offer is these two things.
First – the gift of faith is always available for us to choose. God doesn’t snatch this away from
us. He’s always offering it to us. Even in the storms.
Second – after Jesus calms the storm, He looks at the apostles and asks them, “Why are you
terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
I think we tend to focus on that second part, about not having faith yet, and overlook the first
part. And I think the first bit is crucial for us to understand.
Jesus would not have asked the apostles why they were terrified if there wasn’t the potential
or possibility for them to not be terrified.

He knows our human limitations, intimately. He made us! He loves us! He died for us
because we cannot save ourselves. And out of love He challenges us to new heights, to reach
the full potential of who He made us to be.
And that includes having faith during storms.
It may take your entire life. You may never be fully unafraid in storms when they come. But
it’s possible. Jesus knows it’s possible. And He’s inviting you to strive toward that.
He’s inviting you to choose to accept the gift of faith in the storms.