Fr. Michael Williams

Some of you may have heard the famous story of the person who had a dream; and in the dream two pairs of footprints were seen in the sand. It was understood that one set of footprints was their own and the other set of footprints were those of Jesus. At certain times, one pair of footprints disappeared, and it was noticed that this happened at the difficult moments of the person’s life. Then the person complained to Jesus, ‘why did you leave me at the difficult moments’? Jesus said to them, ‘I was always with you’. But the person replied, ‘How were you with me when I saw there was only one set of footprints in the sand’? Jesus said, ‘They were my set of footprints; at those difficult moments I was carrying you’.

That story reminds us that we all need to learn to trust Our Lord, and know that He is there for us. The disciples in the boat had to learn that. The children have been learning about God’s great love for them over the last few months. Part of that learning requires that we learn to trust in the Lord and turn to Him in our anxieties and in our needs. In today’s gospel the disciples thought the boat they were in was going to sink so they said to the Lord: “Master do you not care? We are going down”! Sometimes we may think where is God; He seems to be asleep. But Jesus requires that we put our faith in Him. Our Lord calmed the storm and brought peace to the situation, when the disciples turned to Him with all their fears. Although Jesus not only rebukes the storm, He also gently rebukes His disciples: “How is it that you have no faith”? We like the disciples constantly need to ask the Lord to increase our faith, our trust in Him.

It is important to note that the disciples would have sunk without trace, if they had not invited Jesus to be in the boat with them in the first place. When we receive the Eucharist, Holy Communion, we are inviting Christ into our lives to help us through the difficult situations in life. We are inviting the One who has power over the storms to guide us safely to the other side. We are all on a journey to eternal life, it’s important we cling to Jesus as we make that journey, so that we will arrive safely to our destination- eternal life.

Our Lord does not give us a simple magic formula to escape all the storms of life; although that is what we generally want. Jesus does not say that we will avoid all difficulties. In fact in St John’s gospel He says: ‘In the world you will have trouble, but be brave I have conquered the world’ (Jn 16: 33). What Jesus says is that He will be with us helping us and strengthening us. The most powerful way He helps us in this world is by coming to us in the Sacraments. The children have already been strengthened by the Sacrament of Confession recently, and soon it will be time to receive the spiritual strength that comes from Holy Communion. These are not one off occurrences, they need to take place regularly to help us, because each day will have enough trouble of its own. But the Sacraments are gifts from God, which restore us and renew us. By receiving Jesus in the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion frequently we are inviting Him into our fragile lives, which are subject to storms and difficulties. Jesus comes to us in these sacraments to help us and to guide us through life.