Tuesday reflection by Sr. Rosemary Finnegan, O.P.
Readings can be found at: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062822.cfm
The saint we celebrate today, St. Irenaeus, who was a bishop in France, a scholar and a defender of the truth in the 2nd century, is the source of one of my favorite quotes: “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” On our recent wonderful pilgrimage to the sacred sites in France, our group heard the stories of the saints in whose footsteps we walked. Bernadette of Lourdes was fully alive with the love of God through Mary’s intercession, St. John Vianney was fully alive as he served his parishioners and heard confessions for 16 hours a day, St. Therese of Lisieux, the ‘Little Flower’, had a childlike devotion to God by serving him in simple ways, and of course, our own St. Margaret Mary lived fully by praying intently to the Sacred Heart. Each had their own way of living fully in and for God.
But like our disciples in the gospel today, they each had storms in their lives with which they struggled. No one would believe young Bernadette or young Therese that Mary had appeared to them, and they suffered much for it. St. John Vianney struggled with his inability to learn things, and St. Margaret Mary was shunned by her own Sisters because of her so called ‘visions’ which they thought were delusions. What can we learn from these very real people and the storms that battered their lives?
Perhaps they felt, at times, that Jesus was asleep to their problems too. But their faith rose to the occasion, and they believed Jesus would awake when he was really needed. He calmed their hearts; he calmed their spirits.
We often have times of stress and anxiety about many things in our lives. We may feel that Jesus is asleep, maybe sound asleep, and not aware of our needs. But our faith tells us to wait, that he will calm the waters of our turbulent souls at just the right moment.
There are two points we can remember from our gospel story.
First, the disciples were out in this storm, not because they were doing something stupid, or they weren’t listening, but because they were following Jesus. The first verse says, “As Jesus got into the boat, his disciples followed him.”. Jesus asked them to join him. A storm rose up for them, like it often does for us. We can remember when that happens to us, that whatever storm we’re in, Christ is with us too.
Secondly, the storm came up without warning. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a little warning the next time a storm came up in our life? That never seems to happen however.
Jesus looks at the disciples when they called for help and says, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” He was asking them “Who or what do you really trust?” He’s asking us, too, to trust nothing more than Jesus himself.
So today, let’s first thank the Lord who has promised never to leave or forsake us. And then, as difficult as it is, perhaps we can thank him for the storms in our lives which have the potential to bring us closer to him. And with that faith and trust, we can show others that “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.”
