Ok, Jesus, are you going to wake up now? Here I am on this ship in a storm. It’s so black out tonight and the wind is whipping and the waves are crashing over my small boat and I feel so afraid. Please stop sleeping now and wake up. I’m scared. Save me.
But when I touch him gently on the shoulder and he awakens to the thunderous storm, he doesn’t look surprised or afraid. He stands up in the boat and stretches out his arms and the wind and sea become calm.
I want him to do that to me, too. I want him to stretch his arms over me and make me calm. He does, too. He searches my face and asks, “Why are you so terrified?” I turn away. I can’t answer.
Today Jesus invites us to respond to that question, to share with him the answer: why am I so afraid? What is it that I hold so deeply down in my soul that I don’t even want to share it with Jesus? What is it in our lives that fills us with fears, knots our stomachs and terrifies us? For each of us it will be different.
The winds and rains whipping around our lives so furiously - what do they represent? The real terrors that storm through our lives might be fears of acceptance, fears of ever being truly loved or of trying to overcome a terrible betrayal that has left us with scars we believe will never heal.
“Quiet. Be still,” Jesus says to us softly as he lifts his healing arms over us. This is our chance to place those fears into Jesus’ hands. We can become fear-less, perhaps not through our own confidence but by trusting in the one who loves us so infinitely in our fears.
We can trust in Jesus. With his arms outstretched over us, he instills in us his healing strength and we find ourselves ready to follow his call to live the gospel. Believing in his presence in our lives, we might be willing to stand at the edge of the boat in the storm, speaking out for the poor and disenfranchised.
“Quiet, be still,” he invites us. The waves and winds are still there, but we are stronger, more faith-filled. We steer the boat toward Jerusalem.
Maureen McCann Waldron
The most important part of my life is my family – Jim my husband of 47 years and our two children. Our daughter Katy, a banker here in Omaha, and her husband John, have three wonderful children: Charlotte, Daniel and Elizabeth Grace. Our son Jack and his wife, Ellie, have added to our joy with their sons, Peter and Joseph.
I think family life is an incredible way to find God, even in (or maybe I should say, especially in) the most frustrating or mundane moments.
I am a native of the East Coast after graduating in 1971 from Archbishop John Carroll High School in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated from Creighton University in 1975 with a degree in Journalism and spent most of the next 20 years in corporate public relations in Omaha. I returned to Creighton in the 1990s and completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality in 1998.
As our children were growing up, my favorite times were always family dinners at home when the four of us would talk about our days. But now that our kids are gone from home, my husband and I have rediscovered how nice it is to have a quiet dinner together. I also have a special place in my heart for family vacations when the kids were little and four of us were away from home together. It’s a joy to be with my growing family.
Writing a Daily Reflection is always a graced moment, because only with God’s help could I ever write one. I know my own life is hectic, disjointed and imperfect and I know most of us have lives like that. I usually write from that point of view and I always seem to find some sentence, some word in the readings that speaks right to me, in all of my imperfection. I hope that whatever I write is in some way supportive of others.
It’s an incredibly humbling experience to hear from someone who was touched by something I wrote. Whether the note is from someone across campus or across the world, it makes me realize how connected we are all in our longing to grow closer to God.
