The Storm Around Us

I get the daily readings and a commentary each day from Daily Gospel. This was today's commentary, written by St. Augustine.

This should serve as a reminder to all Christians today. Is Christ asleep? Or is it just that our faith is sleeping?

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

"Commentary of the day :

Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Exposition on Psalm 25, no. 2

A violent squall came up


We, too, are rowing across a lake that lacks neither wind nor storm: the daily temptations of this world are almost swamping our boat. Why should this be except because Jesus is sleeping? If Jesus were not asleep in you, you would not be undergoing these squalls but would be enjoying great interior peace because Jesus would keep watch with you.

What does it mean: Jesus sleeps? It means that your faith in Jesus is asleep. The lake's tempests arise: you witness the wicked prospering and the virtuous suffering; this is a temptation, a buffeting by the waves. And you say to your soul: «O God, is this your justice? That the wicked should prosper and the virtuous be abandoned to suffering?» Yes, you say to God: «Is this your justice?» And God answers you: «And is this your faith? What in fact did I promise you? Did you become a christian so as to be a success in this world? Are you distressed by the lot of the wicked here below when all the time you are ignorant of their lot in the future world?»

How is it that you talk like this and are tossed by the waves on the lake and by the storm? It is because Jesus is asleep – I mean, that your faith in Jesus is asleep in your heart. What are you to do to be rescued? Waken Jesus and say to him: «Lord, we are lost!». The insecurities of our crossing over the lake trouble us; we are lost. But he will awake, that is to say, your faith will return to you and, with Jesus' help, you will think over it in your heart and note that the good things that are granted to the wicked today are not going to last. Those good things escape them during their lifetime or they will have to leave them behind at the moment of death. But where you are concerned it is the opposite: what is promised you will remain for eternity... So turn away from what falls apart and set your face towards what lasts. When Christ awakes, the storm will no longer buffet your heart nor the waves submerge your boat because your faith will command the winds and the waves and this peril will pass away."