29 January 2022
Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
Freedom and love: two gifts that God shares with us. To be made in his image and likeness means that like him, we are free and capable of love. This is a truth that’s easy to forget, or to misunderstand. We will readily claim our freedom, and often make the link between it and the relationship of love that we have with God. But do we just as readily accept the freedom that God himself has?
Sometimes we want God to act how we want, when and where we want. But by wanting to dictate his actions, we undermine his freedom and our trust in him. Such is the case in today’s gospel when the disciples driven by fear and despair wake Jesus from his peaceful slumber in the middle of a storm. The words that follow, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” can be interpreted as a reproach, coming from a place of confusion. “I thought you loved us. Why won’t you do something?” they seem to be saying. Understandably, their faith, their trust in Jesus was shaken. Jesus responds by calming the storm and calling them to a deeper faith in him.
The beautiful thing is that Jesus doesn’t say, “If you doubt me again, I’ll leave you.” His love is and always will be faithful. Even when we seem to be shaken by one storm after another, even when Jesus seems to be asleep on a cushion, even when our faith in him is beginning to crumble, his love will come through. We are free to cry out his name, and he is free to come to our aid in his way and in his time. Thy will be done.