Saturday January 27, 2024

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Then he asked his disciples, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” (From Mark 4:35-41)

Good News Reflection for:

Saturday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
January 27, 2024

Today’s Readings:

2 Samuel 12:1-7a,10-17
Ps 51:12-17
Mark 4:35-41
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012724.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-january-27-2024

Jesus wants to calm your storms

Jesus wants to calm your storms! This Saturday’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus calms the storm, is a good image of how to handle adversity as a Christian. The question that Jesus asked is a tough one, though. It gets to the point of why we don’t feel calm when freedom-stealing pandemics, health problems, anti-truth cancel culture, corporate corruption, family breakups, and other adversities blow into our lives. He asks: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith in Me?”

I believe that the activities of evil will continue to worsen until enough people wake up to the truth and turn to Christ. How calm we feel during this period and any other adversity is a measure of how much we rely on Jesus. While it may feel hard to believe at times, truly Jesus wants to calm your storms. 

If we truly trust Jesus, we can calmly smile and say to ourselves (and to anyone who will listen): “Regardless of what this looks like, Jesus has got it. He’s bigger than this. He’s working a plan that will turn out very good, and we’ll be glad that he didn’t take shortcuts to get there.”

My favorite prayer for this is: “Lord Jesus, I trust in You. Take care of everything.”

What interferes with your experience of totally trusting Jesus? Perhaps you’re watching the news too much. Perhaps you don’t know where to find good and truthful news in the media. Perhaps you have people in your life who undermine your joy.

These things challenge our patience, our endurance, and our hopefulness. Those who are caught up in Satan’s lies challenge our ability to love unconditionally and our quickness to forgive. In other words, they challenge the depth of our faith. The more vulnerable we are to these challenges, the more easily our faith is tossed around by the destructive forces of the storm.

Are these evils responsible for our faith? Is victory over evil the source of our joy? No! We must not give evil such control over our lives. Our response is always our choice, and if we fail to take ownership of this, we let evil toss us around like wind-driven waves on the sea. The devil wants to make us doubt God’s goodness, his love, and his desire to help. But we don’t have to give him any wins. It’s our decision.

It starts with a proclamation of the truth, spoken from our hearts loudly enough and often enough to cut through our doubts. However, speaking the truth is not enough to turn our doubting minds into joyful trust. Faith, trust, and joy are not moods. They are a relationship with Christ. The stronger our personal relationship with Jesus is, the stronger our faith is. The stronger our trust becomes. And his joy is our joy.

Repent of disbelief and distrust. Repent of laziness in learning more about the Faith. Then you will know that Jesus is always walking beside you with his arm is around you. You will be filled with hope instead of fear because of your intimate friendship with the Redeemer.

“Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” means, “Why do you let things frighten you? If we have a strong friendship, you know you can lean on Me.” Jesus wants to calm your storms, so let him!

To experience greater closeness to Jesus, use our prayer “An Intimate Conversation You Can Have with Jesus” @ gnm.org/intimateconversation.

© 2024 by Terry A. Modica

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