My Thoughts on 30/06/2020

The few times I have been by the Sea of Galilee or as it is known the Lake Tiberias or Kinneret, it has always been calm but fisherman can experience violent storms as we read in today’s Gospel. The cry of the disciples was, “Save us Lord, we are going down”. Other translations are “We are lost” or “We are perishing.” Jesus is asleep.

Sometimes we might feel that we are in the midst of a storm and we feel we are lost or we are going down. God seems to be absent. There seems to be no immediate answer to our prayer. But our faith tells us God is there. Fr Sylvester O Flynn writes about Saint Theresa of Lisieux who spoke in her autobiography that in her early years in the convent, she felt she was the favourite toy of the Child Jesus. Later she felt great desolation and darkness. Now she thought of her self as the toy that had been thrown away.

Jesus said to the disciples as they woke him. “Why are you so frightened, you men of little faith?” He then calmed the storm. Perhaps God allows these times of darkness and stretch and deepen our little faith.

Again I quote Fr O’Flynn, “Thomas Merton wrote that in daylight we can see the objects that our near us, but it is only in the darkness of night that we can see the distant stars.God is using the night of faith to make our faith deeper than a matter of how we feel.”

Let us pray that when our faith is being tested in darkness, may we always trust that God is with us and has not forsaken us.

Canon Father Anthony Charlton
Canon Father Anthony CharltonParish Priest