The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

In today's Gospel, we read that the men wondered what manner of man Jesus is because the wind and the sea obey Him. Jesus is not just a man; He is God made Man — the Son of God in human flesh. As God, He is in control of all of creation. The disciples saw this on land when Jesus worked many miracles, but now they see Him do the same on the water — manifesting His power over wind and sea as well.

It is of great importance to note that the storm that arose upon the water and the calming of that storm is all the same work of God. God is in control of everything. Nothing happens without His permission. The only part of His creation that has the power to disobey Him are the fallen angels and human beings. However, even in these, it is God's Will that we are free to exercise our wills, even if that entails defiance and disobedience. Even in the rebellion of the fallen angels and men, God makes use of these evils to draw forth a much greater good.

The Human nature of Jesus was asleep on the boat, but His Divine nature never sleeps and is entirely aware of everything that happens — even before it happens. In the evil acts of devils and men, God knows their deeds even before they think of them. It is God's love for us that prevents Him from forcing His Will upon us. We must give our love freely if it is to be of value.

God sees the works of men even before men conceive of their works and form the desire and intention to do them. In His infinite power and goodness, He prepares an ever greater good to come from every evil that His creatures can ever commit.

From our limited perspective, we are often left wondering why God allows various evils or difficulties in our lives or in the world we live in. Why are there wars, sickness, handicaps, injuries, pandemics, natural disasters, heresies, and schisms? Simply, the answer is that God has willed them or allowed them for our benefit — penance, correction, mortification, etc. We observe this in the Book of Job. Job suffered terribly because He loved God. In this instance, Job did nothing wrong, He did everything well, and still, God asked him to endure great crosses. His terrible sufferings became the source of even greater good. The words of Job are filled with meaning if we take the time to think of them. "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord."

We need not understand why God does or allows various things. We only need to accept or embrace everything He gives or takes away with increasing love for Him. Maybe God made the storm on the sea so that He could teach the disciples and us that we need to call upon Him with humble, confidant faith. We should also learn to trust God in everything that happens. His rain falls upon the just and the unjust alike. We need not worry about the things of this earth but only seek the things of Heaven. We have a Father in Heaven Who knows what we need and will take care of us if we will only love and serve Him.

God sends us crosses in our lives because He loves us. If we are to follow Jesus, we need crosses. If we wish to be His disciples, He commands that we deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily and follow Him. The crosses are blessings to be treasured and loved because they come to us from the Hand of Our loving Father in Heaven. Sin has brought forth the evils, but in the infinite Wisdom of God, these evils become the crosses that allow us to overcome sins and gain increasing merit for Heaven.

Today, we experience an avalanche of false faith and religion. We can feel the sentiments of many of the Saints when we lament that "God — Love — is not loved." It is lonely at His crib in Bethlehem; lonely at the Cross on Calvary; and lonely at His Altar of Sacrifice in the Holy Mass. "Many are called, but few are chosen." There are many people around Jesus and around us, but the number of people who truly see, understand or appreciate what is before them is very small. The majority of men are blind and callous despite their claims to see, love, and understand. With Jesus, we do not despise or wish harm upon the blinded mobs, but instead, we pray for them. "Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing."

As we pray for the grace to accept our crosses, let us also pray for the souls around us and beg of Jesus to convert so many misguided souls and increase vocations dedicated to loving and serving Him in this world. God has seen and permitted this storm in our day. May we have at least the little faith of the disciples to call upon Him to save us from this storm. One Word from Him and all will be made well.

email: father@friarsminor.org Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?

Would you like to make a donation?

Or, just log onto PayPal.com, after signing in you can send your donation to us at: Friars@friarsminor.org .

Blog with audio downloads

Return to Menu.

Return to Homepage.