🫣 Mark 6:52 Why Are You Still Afraid of the Storms?

My friends, have you ever felt it? That familiar sinking feeling when life throws a storm your way.
A medical diagnosis,
a sudden job loss,
a broken relationship,
or something else that feels like the waves are crashing over the sides of your boat, and you’re sure you’re going under.

And in those moments, if we're honest with ourselves, a foolish question often bubbles up in our hearts: “Where is God in all of this?”

We let the darkness of this one night eclipse every sunrise he's ever painted for us. In that moment we forget all incidents of His Faithfulness and Miracles. 

I was recently reflecting on one such incident in the Gospel, the story of Jesus walking on water. We know it well. The disciples are in a boat, a fierce wind is blowing, and they’re straining against the oars. They’re terrified as they see a figure walking toward them on the water, and they scream, convinced it’s a ghost.

Jesus, with his characteristic calm, says, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear” (Mark 6:50). He gets into the boat, and the wind dies down.

Now, here’s the part that always stops me in my tracks. It’s the very next verse, a little detail we might rush past: 

“And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened” -- Mark 6:52

Let that sink in.

Just hours before, these same men had witnessed Jesus feed over five thousand people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. And they had collected twelve baskets of leftovers! It was a miracle that defied all human logic, a clear sign of divine power over the natural world.

And yet, when they saw him control the wind and the sea, their hearts were still "hardened." - unwilling to accept or understand.

Mark isn’t saying they were bad men. He's saying their spiritual awareness was slow. They hadn't connected the dots. The miracle of the loaves should have prepared them for the miracle on the water. They should have seen it and said, "Of course it's Jesus! He's the one who provided for thousands out of nothing. Why wouldn't He be able to walk on water or command the sea?"

How often is this us?

We've experienced countless miracles in our own lives. The miracle of the sun rising, a difficult prayer answered, the perfect person showing up just when you needed them, the grace of Confession, the very real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Yet when a new storm comes, and we're just like the disciples, rowing desperately and forgetting everything we’ve learned and experienced. 

We must sharpen our spiritual awareness, connecting the miracles of yesterday with the challenges of today. Let’s not allow our hearts to be hardened by fear, but instead, remember the ways God has provided for us in the past to weather the storms of the present.

Our task is to rekindle the Holy Spirit not as a one-time event, but as a daily practice. We must reinforce our belief that God is always in the boat, even when the waves seem overwhelming.

Let's pray for a renewed spiritual awareness, so that when we see Jesus walking toward us in the midst of our own storms, our first response isn't fear, but a resounding “Amen!”

Because truly, He is always present whispering "it is I; have no fear."