SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest misunderstandings in the spiritual life is this.
SPEAKER_00: If God loves me, my life should be easy.
SPEAKER_00: Many people quietly believe that.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm praying, if I'm going to mass, if I'm living a good life and I'm doing what I should be doing, why am I going through this?
SPEAKER_00: Why is my life so difficult?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I always in a funk?
SPEAKER_00: Today's readings completely dismantle that way of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: We turn to the first reading, God speaks through the prophet Amos.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You alone have I favored.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I will punish you for all your crimes.
SPEAKER_00: At first those words sound almost unfair.
SPEAKER_00: Because I love you, I will correct you.
SPEAKER_00: But every good parent understands exactly what God is saying.
SPEAKER_00: The parent who loves a child disciplines him.
SPEAKER_00: The parent who does not care lets a child destroy himself.
SPEAKER_00: Correction is often a sign of love, not rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Notice something else.
SPEAKER_00: Again and again Amos asks questions.
SPEAKER_00: Does a lion roar without reason?
SPEAKER_00: Does a trap spring without catching something?
SPEAKER_00: Does a trumpet sound without people paying attention?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is always no.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing happens without a cause.
SPEAKER_00: God is telling Israel that their suffering is not random.
SPEAKER_00: It's a wake up call.
SPEAKER_00: Not because God enjoys punishing, but because he desires conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Then comes one of the most powerful lines.
SPEAKER_00: Prepare to meet your God, says Amos.
SPEAKER_00: Most people hear those words and immediately think about death.
SPEAKER_00: But Amos is talking about something much deeper.
SPEAKER_00: Every crisis is, in some sense, a meeting with God.
SPEAKER_00: Every illness, every disappointment, every failure, every unexpected change, every storm, they all become moments when God asks, Will you come back to me?
SPEAKER_00: Will you trust me?
SPEAKER_00: Because if we turn to the gospel, we see that the disciples are literally in a storm.
SPEAKER_00: The waves are crashing into the boat.
SPEAKER_00: Experienced fishermen think they're about to die.
SPEAKER_00: And meanwhile, Jesus is asleep.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine how unsettling that must have been.
SPEAKER_00: The storm is raging, the disciples are panicking, and Jesus appears completely unconcerned.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, they wake him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, save us, we're perishing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calms two storms.
SPEAKER_00: First, he calms the storm inside the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you terrified?
SPEAKER_00: O you of little faith?
SPEAKER_00: Only then does he calm the wind and the seas.
SPEAKER_00: That order matters, because the greatest storms are not usually around us, they're within us.
SPEAKER_00: Fear, anxiety, panic, despair, those storms can continue even after circumstances improve.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants to calm the heart before he calms the weather.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he does not calm the external storm.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he heals the illness.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he resolves the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he opens the door we thought was permanently closed.
SPEAKER_00: But there are other times when he allows the storms to continue because something even greater is about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching us to trust him.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were exactly where Jesus wanted them to be.
SPEAKER_00: They were in the boat because they had followed him.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience does not spare them from the storm, neither will it spare us.
SPEAKER_00: Following Christ does not guarantee a storm-free life.
SPEAKER_00: It guarantees that Christ is in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: And that changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: Because the question then is not whether storms will come, they will come.
SPEAKER_00: The real question is whether we will panic like the disciples, or will we trust the one whom even the winds and the seas obey?
SPEAKER_00: Because when Christ is in the boat, no storm has the final word.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.