24 March 2020 “Take heart, it is I do not be afraid.” (Mark 6:50)
In today’s Gospel for the Tuesday of the 5th Week of Great Lent (Mark 6:47-56), Jesus calms the storm and tells his Apostles to take heart and not be afraid because he is with them. In these difficult and dark times when the adverse wind of pain and suffering, the adverse wind of the coronavirus, that is straining our oars of faith and our ship of existence, Jesus appears before us also to tell us: “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Yes, our churches have closed down temporarily and we have been physically separated from the real presence of our Lord in the Divine Liturgy and the Eucharist; yes, we are living in fear and anxiety for the safety and well-being of our loved ones, yes the world is shutting down and going into isolation, yet the Lord is walking towards us on this roaring sea of challenge and is saying amidst all of this; “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Take heart because I am with you, take heart because I will never leave you, take heart because I will never let anything take you away from me.
We are definitely experiencing a storm that will most certainly change the course of our lives. However, to believe in Jesus doesn’t mean that we will be saved from the storm, to believe in Jesus means that we will have the foundation to help us sail through it.
Let us all put our trust in the Lord today more than ever. Let us trust that he will calm the wind of this virus and bring peace into our hearts in the same way that he brought peace into the hearts of the apostles. Do not be afraid, he is with us, and he will never leave us. Amen.
