Saturday, January 27, 2018 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 2 Sam 12:1-7a. 10-17 Gospel: Mk 4:35–41
On that same day when evening had come, Jesus said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” So they left the crowd and took him away in the boat he had been sitting in, and other boats set out with him. Then a storm gathered and it began to blow a gale. The waves spilled over into the boat so that it was soon filled with water. And Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.
They woke him up and said, “Master, don’t you care if we sink?” As Jesus awoke, he rebuked the wind and ordered the sea, “Quiet now! Be still!” The wind dropped and there was a great calm. Then Jesus said to them, “Why are you so frightened? Do you still have no faith?”
But they were terrified and they said to one another, “Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
We are not always sure about what the future holds for us. The uncertainty can trigger lots of worries.
Thanks to the virtue of hope that calms down all our fears. Not all who hope, however, are in good hands. Without faith, hope can fuel false expectations. Experience tells us that no matter how we want to stay optimistic fear can still hound us because we are not in full control of circumstances. As we hope against hope, suspense drives us to that exhausting emotional state, anxious about what the future dangles in exchange for our perseverance. More often than the coveted bacon, it is the hanging Damocles sword.
This was the experience of the Apostles in the boat. When storm gathered and began to blow a gale, the waves spilled over into the boat and it was soon filled with water. The Apostles did not know what was in store for them that night. The only weapon left was hope because although they were seasoned fishermen, things went completely out of control. Despite so much hope, however, they panicked when the winds and waves took them to the brink of death.
Hope alone cannot bail us out from fear. What is needed is faith. To those who have faith, hope assumes a greater degree of assurance. As St. Paul said, “Faith is the assurance of what we hope for, being certain of what we cannot see” (Heb 11:1–2, 8–19). Faith sets us free from fear of the unknown.
What was missing in the hope of the Apostles was the exercise of faith. Unless hope is exercised in faith, hope only engenders false expectations. It was only when the disciples exercised their faith by waking Jesus up that they were saved.
We are not sure about what the future holds for us. But if we have hope exercised in faith, we will be in good hands! –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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