The Ultimate Fear

Gospel: Matthew 8: 23-27

Storms are a familiar occurrence.  They happen so often that we should not be surprised by them at all.  And yet we become fearful at their presence in our midst. Why? We fear the loss of life and property, to be sure.  But property is a replaceable thing and we ought not be attached to our things anyway.  Yet the amount of money we spend on extra storage units, alarm systems, and guns to protect our stuff indicates we are a long way away from Jesus' ideal.

And the fear of dying?  Well, this is the ultimate fear, an event even more familiar to us than storms, for everyone will die one way or another.  Storms remind us that we do not get to choose the manner in which we die.  We could indeed die in this storm, but is that such a bad thing? Are we afraid of what lies beyond death? Are we afraid that nothing lies beyond death? All of this suggests we have some regrets about how we have lived life to the present time.

Jesus rebukes the disciples - and us - in fearing death and storms.  If we truly are loving God and others, what fear should we have of death?  If we have lived the best version of ourselves, what regrets should we have?  How many storms in our life are merely illusory and of our own making? Today is a day for reflecting on why it is that we are afraid of such things and addressing those issues in our lives.