Jesus Is There For You Always
Introduction
The Bible gives us Sodom and Gomorrah as the typical cities of sin. Grilling popular story.
We have to recognize the Lord’s presence and to keep trusting in him when storms rage within us and in our world as they threaten to engulf us and make us ask: “Lord, where are you?” These may be the storms of sickness and pains, of temptation, of denials, of doubts and fears regarding the faith, of threatened loyalty. The winds of change too may be howling typhoons tossing the bark of the Church around, before we can enter the calm waters of a renewed Church. As I write this reflection I have so many. In encouraging you, I encourage myself. Don’t look back. Look upon Jesus. If possible, don’t just tap at his back, jump on his back or climb on his shoulders if you can. Remember the iconic image of the good shepherd and his found ewe. The Lord is there; we should not be afraid.
1 Reading: Genesis 19:15-29
As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “On your way! Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of Sodom.” When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD’s mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city. As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told: “Flee for your life! Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.” “Oh, no, my lord!” Lot replied, “You have already thought enough of your servant to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life. But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me, and so I shall die. Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It’s only a small place. Let me flee there–it’s a small place, is it not?– that my life may be saved.” “Well, then,” he replied, “I will also grant you the favour you now ask. I will not overthrow the town you speak of. Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” That is why the town is called Zoar. The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar; at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD out of heaven. He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood in the LORD’s presence. As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain, he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace. Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 26:2-3, 9-10, 11-12
R. (3a) O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.
Search me, O LORD, and try me;
test my soul and my heart.
For your mercy is before my eyes,
and I walk in your truth. R.
Gather not my soul with those of sinners,
nor with men of blood my life.
On their hands are crimes,
and their right hands are full of bribes. R.
But I walk in integrity;
redeem me, and have mercy on me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the assemblies I will bless the LORD. R.
Alleluia: Psalm 130:5
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Matthew 8:23-27
As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?”
Commentary
The minimum number of innocent people in Sodom was evidently not to be found, as we read yesterday; hence God’s punishment is visited upon both cities. Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family are spared, however. As they flee, they are urged to move on, even in their weariness. When they ask to be allowed to find refuge in the nearby plain city of Zoar, the request is granted. Told not to look back on the cities of the plain, Lot’s wife disobeys and becomes a “pillar of salt.” The rugged terrain of the Dead Sea area may have suggested the punishment. But the moral point is clear enough. Once deliverance is at hand, disobedience is dangerous and punishable – there can be no looking back.
In the Gospel, a sudden change of weather incites fear in the hearts of the disciples, though Christ is present with them. In Mark’s Gospel, they cry out to the sleeping Jesus, essentially reproaching him for his lack of concern. In Matthew, they offer a prayer for deliverance. The answer is swift in coming as calm is restored. The point is clear. On the stormy sea of life, trouble often leads to discouragement. But we are not to fear. Such are moments of trust. Christ is with us in the storm. With faith and assurance, Lot was saved as were the disciples. Even when he seems to be absent, God is closer than we realize. In fact, our God neither not sleeps nor slumbers (Psalm 121,4).
After suffering years of spiritual aridity, Teresa of Avila asked the Lord where he was in her suffering. His answer was, “Right in the middle of your heart.”
Blessing
“Why are you afraid, people of little faith?” Let us entrust ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord. With him we can overcome all difficulties. With peace and love, may almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!