Today's readings present us with two powerful images of humanity facing imminent peril. In the First Reading, Lot and his family are urg...
Today's readings present us with two powerful images of humanity facing imminent peril. In the First Reading, Lot and his family are urged to FLEE from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The command is stark: "Flee for your life! Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain." Lot's wife, tragically, falters. She looks back, perhaps out of attachment to what was being lost, out of doubt, or perhaps out of sheer curiosity, and is turned into a pillar of salt. This serves as a stark reminder of the consequences of hesitation and looking back when God calls us forward.
Then, in the Gospel, we see the disciples in a boat, caught in a violent storm. They are overcome by FEAR, crying out, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" Jesus, who was asleep, calmly wakes and asks them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little FAITH?" He then rebukes the winds and the sea, and there is a great calm.
These two narratives, separated by millennia, speak to a timeless human struggle. We often find ourselves facing "storms" in our lives – personal crises, societal upheavals, spiritual battles. And like Lot's wife, we can be tempted to look back at our comfortable past, or cling to what is familiar, even when it's destructive. Or like the disciples, we can be paralyzed by fear, forgetting the power of the One who is with us.
The call to flee is not always about physical escape; it's often a call to turn away from sin, from distractions, from anything that pulls us away from God's will. And when we do so, we are called to move forward with unwavering faith, trusting that God is in control, even when the waves are crashing around us. Our fear can be a paralyzing force, but it is precisely in the face of fear that our faith is truly tested and can be truly strengthened.
Let us ask ourselves today: What are we clinging to that we need to flee from? And when the storms of life inevitably come, where is our faith? Do we succumb to fear, or do we remember the One who can command even the winds and the sea to be still? May we choose to flee from what hinders us, and embrace faith over fear, always looking forward to the peace that Christ offers.
No comments