Saturday – St. Thomas Aquinas

Gospel – Mark4:35-41

Calming The Storm Within

Sea of Galilee, Tabgha

 I’m holding in my hand an 8oz cup filled with about 4oz of water – what am I going to say next?  Half full?  Half empty?  HAA!  No, actually it doesn’t really matter if it’s half empty or full.  The weight doesn’t matter at all!  What matters is HOW LONG I hold it!  If I hold it for an hour, my arm starts to ache.  If I hold it for a day, you better call for an ambulance!  In every case, it’s the same weight.  But the longer I hold it, the more it weighs me down, the more it hurts!

And so it is with stress, with fear, with anxiety!  And let’s face it - we are all stressed about something. Whether it’s school, or family, or work, or our health, or the world in general, we are all stressed!  And the longer we hold on to it, the more it hurts, the more it hurts us!  And the more it drags us down!  The longer we keep it inside, the heavier it gets!

In today’s Gospel, the Apostles find themselves on the Sea of Galilee, caught in a storm. Question – aren’t they fishermen?  Shouldn’t they be used to storms and rough weather?  And yet they’re still afraid.  What does that tell us?  Sometimes we all get scared, no matter who we are!  School kids and adults, brothers and sister, parents, teachers, and even Apostles!  And yet, if you think of it, they aren’t facing the fear all by themselves; they aren’t alone in that boat!  That tells us something too – even when we’re scared and we think we are all alone, we aren’t!  A lot of our family/friends are feeling scared too, just like us!

We celebrate today the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church, one of the pre-eminent theologians in Christian history.  His greatest contributions were his writings, particularly Summa Theologiae, which, while never finished, was an exhaustive study of all Christian theology.  And yet he didn’t just magically appear one day; it was a long slow but steady growth out of fear and doubt into faith and devotion.  His parents did everything they could to keep him from joining the Dominican Order, even imprisoning him at home for over a year. 

He was nicknamed the “dumb ox” not because of his mental ability but because of his rather large physical presence and his shy and quiet disposition.  And yet through all those struggles, he emerged as probably the Church’s greatest philosopher uniting faith and reason.  Judge him by his (physical) size, do you?  Don’t you think Thomas must have experienced fear – fear of ridicule by his classmates, fear of public speaking, fear of disappointing his parents or of accomplishing his mission to expound on theology?

Today’s Gospel tells us everything we need to know about fear and about gaining a sense of peace.  We all get scared!  But we aren’t alone!  And most importantly as Jesus tells us – don’t be afraid! Just let it go and trust in Me!  If you want peace in your heart, peace with your family and neighbors, peace in your world - have faith in Me.  Have faith that I am right there with you!  Set aside that cup full of stress and worry and be not afraid!

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 28, 2023 at 2:22 PM

    Just like my beautician said, “Put your stress on the shelf and let God take care of it.”

    ReplyDelete

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