How God Speaks to Us

Reflection on Today's Readings, 13th Week in Ordinary Time Year II, Tuesday 30th June, 2020
Texts: Amos 5:14-15.21-24; Ps. 50:7.8-9.10-11.12-13.16-17; Mtt. 8:23-27
'Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?' Jesus challenged his disciples. The storm narrated in today's gospel must have been unusual for Jesus' disciples, who were fishermen, to cry out for help. Disciples like Peter, John, Andrew, James etc were used to the sea and would have experienced various kinds of storm, but this was beyond their power. How could a man fall asleep in such a situation? The throwing up and down of the boat, the splashing of water, the noise and other events that go along with that kind of situation could not wake Jesus up! Anyone who had experienced storm, whether low or high, in the sea will not but say that the sleep was not ordinary. The gospel reading is trying to depict a kind of unshakeable trust that Jesus had in God that he remained undisturbed in the face of turbulent and deadly situation. Jesus Christ called his disciples to this kind of trust in God and so, he said, "Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?" It is a kind of faith in which our will and intellect are surrendered to God. The more the will seeks to align with God's word, the more doing the will of God becomes easy, so also the more the intellect seeks to understand the word of God, the more the word opens up for understanding. The event in today's gospel was meant to call the disciples to higher form of faith. It is an answer to their request: Lord, increase our faith.
Today's first reading also recalled how God employed the same method to call the people of Israel back to himself, doing good, not evil. It reads: "'I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,' says the Lord". God sent his prophets, they did not listen to them; he then shook them through events, they persisted in their sin. They wasted God's love on them.
Today's Readings, therefore, reminds us that God speaks to us through our experiences, events and situations in life. God trains and gives answers to our prayers through events and situations of our lives.

Lord Jesus, open our minds to understand what you say to us by events and situations of our lives. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke