Happy Midsummer.
I don’t know how many weeks in a row I can repeat myself. However, the appropriate thing to say is again, the craziness continues. This coming weekend I will be in Spokane, WA for a wedding of a former FOCUS missionary in Mankato. I will be flying out on Thursday and getting back on Sunday. Father Joe Fogal will have the Masses.
Today, the Gospel reading is Mark’s short version of Jesus calming the storm. I think we can very much relate the feeling of the Apostles in the boat with Jesus. Jesus is asleep in the stern on a cushion when the storm comes up. I don’t know about you, but I need it to be quiet and calm for me to fall asleep. This is why I don’t sleep much in planes or cars. But, yes, Jesus, is asleep as the storm is raging, tossing the boat. The Apostles wake Jesus and say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” How many times have we felt like that in our lives? “Jesus, do you not care that I am perishing?” My life is a train wreck and all my friends have turned against me? Or maybe one of your children has died. Life is full of storms. Jesus may or may not calm the storms. However, we can ask Him to calm our hearts. We can ask Him to give us greater faith, greater trust. Jesus does care, even when it seems like He doesn’t. Cry out to Him with trust and faith. It is not in the calm that our faith grows, but in the storms.
God bless,
Father Vogel
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