The disciples follow Jesus on the boat. Even though He is with them, they are afraid and frightened by the stormy sea. Having faith does not mean not being afraid. It does not mean that difficulties disappear and that life will always smile at you. This is not the promise that Jesus makes to us in the Gospel. There are situations in which it seems that God disappears and that He is not interested in our destiny. We feel abandoned and forced to fend for ourselves in the dangerous situation.
In this situation, the disciples go to Jesus and wake him up. Jesus’ awakening coincides with the awakening of our conscience. The situations that we perceive as dangerous have the power to make us come into contact with reality and invite us to take control of the situation and become masters of our lives… as Jesus does on the boat.
When this happens, reality begins to obey a new logic: from danger it becomes opportunity. What happens becomes an opportunity to take a step forward towards a new form of fulfillment of our life. It is certainly not a foregone conclusion. It is not immediate, it requires time.
The disciples question themselves, they need to contemplate the mystery that is questioning them, to be able to inhabit it to the full. The same happens for us. When we come out of the dangerous situation, we can reread what happened and see how we were in it. This is how we grow and begin to enjoy life.
This is the movement of faith. It is not a simple reliance on an external force, in the hope that the situation will be resolved independently of us. It is rather the appropriation of the power that originally belongs to us to impress on reality a meaning that restores fulfillment.
Flavio Emanuele Bottaro SJ
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Source: Get up and Walk – the daily gospel commented
