Tuesday July 2, 2024

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Good News Reflections:
Making scripture meaningful to your daily life
by Terry Modica

How does faith in the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist grow? Find out in my studybook/workbook My Soul Shall Be Healed. (Discounts available! — Be my partner: Give a copy to your priest.)

“It’s our insufficient faith that causes us to wander away from Jesus’ peace and to fear troubles.”

Good News Reflection for:

Tuesday of the 13th Week of Ordinary Time
July 2, 2024

Today’s Prayer:

Lord, help me to remember that in the most difficult times of my life, You are always with me in a special way. I believe You will conquer every problem and raise me up from it. Thank You, Lord! Increase my faith! Amen.

LET’S IMPROVE YOUR DAY!
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Today’s Readings:

Amos 3:1-8; 4:11-12
Ps 5:4-8
Matthew 8:23-27
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070224.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-july-2-2024

Calming the storms we fail to avoid

What’s stormy in your life right now? From where did this turmoil come? Have you wondered, “Why me?”

Some storms occur because we’re living in a world that’s full of bad weather and we can’t avoid the tumult no matter what we do. These are opportunities to grow stronger in faith by learning from the troubles. We become more humble through them. We have a greater need to rely on God and so we grow closer to him. And then we can help others more effectively endure their own storms. (Our sufferings are pointless if we don’t turn them into ministry for others.)

Some storms feel like punishments from God, especially when we know that we deserve it. We have sailed into a hurricane’s path by sinning or making other bad decisions. While these storms should make us crawl into the Father’s lap for security, if we’re feeling guilty, we might see them as a reason to be afraid of God and maybe even angry at him.

One example of just such a storm is the suffering caused by enduring miserable employment, because we have not put forth enough effort to go out and find a better job with God’s help. Another example is suffering through division in a significant relationship because we have not put forth the effort to examine and deal with our own shortcomings.

When we make bad decisions and sail into sinful territory, we create our own storms. The choice is ours — it’s always ours. God never wants us to get punished by life. He sends plenty of warnings and then, if we get into a mess anyway, Jesus beckons us. He’s eager to calm our storms, and he can do it. Storms are only an interruption in the peaceful skies of God’s love.

While it is true that we deserve to be punished because of our sins, Jesus took the Father’s righteous wrath upon his own flesh, so that we could receive mercy instead of punishment. As we see in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus wants to calm our storms, not cause them.

When we, like the disciples, cry out, “Lord, save us!” Jesus replies, “Where’s your courage? How little faith you have! My peace is already here.” It’s our insufficient faith — our lack of awareness of his calming presence — that causes us to wander away from his peace and to fear troubled waters.

If we really knew that he loves us beyond all measure, if we truly understood that he wants what’s best for us, if we fully trusted that his ways are the best ways, we would recognize the bad weather warnings and steer away from the avoidable storms, and we’d survive all the other storms without sinking our boats.

What do you need Jesus to save you from today? Trust him, and he will calm your fears today and lead you to peaceful shores.

For more on this subject, see our WordByte called: “A Lesson from Cracked Glass about Victory” @ https://wordbytes.org/food-for-faith/cracked-glass-victory/.

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