Upon reading this passage, I already began to feel “under the weather”… but then there was the Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 5) with other soft phrases such as “You detest those who practice iniquity and destroy the liar.”

Then seeing the Gospel, Jesus is sleeping in the boat, the disciples were frightened in the middle of the storm, and the sea calms from the authority of the Word of God. This same word that in the middle of all this, speaks to me and to the heart: “Why do you have so much fear, weak men of faith?”

Good…The Liturgy of today was very generous in warnings.

I have lived a time of suffering in my life, a time in the wilderness, of pruning, of fatique in the middle of such suffering of my own health, of time, of my strength (the person that are closest to me know well of that which I am speaking!)

Today, I was at mass of saying to the Lord: “End all this suffering! Already I am putting up with enough! I see myself without strength, my God” Then I thought that I would going to receive in that Eucharist, many words of consolation, of support, in order to revive my faith, etc. And what did I receive? W-A-R-N-I-N-G-S

And this is that which enchants me in God: The Details of His love for us.

He advised because he loves, because he wants us to be saints. God wants that we may be better persons, people of God! Today I heard the Lord call me a “weak man in the faith.” And it is that I see myself: weak, however in the SAME boat as my Master. I am in the middle of the story of life? Yes! But with that certainty of what the Lord who apparently sleeps, but sooner or later he will get up (inside this boat of my existence) and put all that agitation around me in order.

I ask that today you understand that God does not warn us it is something that gives him pleasure! He does not “pull our ears” because he feels happy in showing us our faults and limitations…. No, God is love. And the love always transforms.

We need to be transformed. We are not ready. We are not perfect. We have faults. We bring edges that need to be smoothed. Listen to the warning of God: it touches us in our wounds, shows us with clarity where there is selfishness and sin in our heart. The warning of God is a mirror without stain that reveals how we appear in the process called conversion.

I end with the same sentiment that the Psalmist who in the middle of such warnings on the part of God rose to chose the greatness of this love that corrects to affirm the psalm of today. I therefore, through your generous grace am able to enter in your house, And returning reverently to your temple with respect I adore you.”

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That the Lord concedes to us always a reverent heart to God. What warning have you received from Him in your life today? Do not be discouraged before this warning, on the contrary, accept it as an efficient instrument of healing and transformation. In His mysterious designs, God makes the warning a kind of “ticket”, an authentic “ticket” (This generous grace of which speaks the psalmist) where we can enter the road to God’s house with confidence.

Remain in the “Boat”! OK?

A Fraternal Hug,

Alexandre

New Song Community

Translated from Portuguese

Photo Credit: Jesus Calms the Storm Hermano Leon