6 January 2020 – Wednesday after Epiphany – Mark 6:45-52

        As we continue to celebrate the Christmas season and Jesus' birth into our world, we find the disciples out on the sea in a boat in today's Gospel passage, where the disciples are battered by the angry winds and waves.  The disciples look out at the sea with fear as they see someone walking on the water, moving toward them.  Jesus is able to calm the rough winds and waves.  In our own lives, we may think that Jesus does not hear our pleas for help or see us in need when we are battered about on our journey.

         If you have ever been on the ocean, a river, or lake on a boat when bad weather or an accident strikes, it can be quite a terrifying situation.  On my dad’s side of the family, my ancestors were sea people from a small village in Scotland called Newburgh in the region of Scotland called Fife.  They were all sea people, making their living from the sea as sailors and crew members on sailing ships.  They immigrated to the Great Lakes region of the Midwest here in the United States in the mid-19th century, where they worked as sailors on ships on the great lakes.  In fact, one of the priests here in the Diocese sent me link to a photo he found on the internet from the newspaper of Northwestern University just outside of Chicago.  It was a photo that originally ran in the university’s newspaper, which showed one of my ancestors being pulled out of lake Michigan by some university students after a shipwreck.  

At times, we can feel like the disciples in our Gospel today, tossed about by a storm, fearing disaster. In times like that, we can be encouraged by knowing that God is all-powerful, even in the midst of all we are going through.  Trusting God can be difficult in times of stress and adversity.  Think of all the fear and stress and adversity we have been through this year of the pandemic.  As we enter the new year of 2021, we should take heart in the faith we have in God, in the salvation we have in him, in the agape, self-giving love that we receive from him in our redeemer, Jesus Christ.  May we trust in God's faithful presence at all times in our lives.