Leaving the crowd behind, Jesus and His disciples get into their boat to cross the Lake of Galilee. There are other boats with them. Half way across the lake a storm blows up and the waves are so big they are in danger of swamping the boat. All the while, Jesus is fast asleep in the boat, apparently oblivious to all danger. In their panic, the disciples wake up Jesus. "Master, do you not care? We are going down!" With a word, Jesus orders the wind to be calm. Suddenly, there is no wind and all is peace. This frightens the disciples even more: "Who can this be? Even the wind and sea obey him?" But Jesus rebukes them for their lack of trust in him.

There are two things we can reflect on here. First, the divine power of Jesus is the power of His Father in Him. With the protection of that power, the disciples have nothing to fear. As the First Reading reminds us, God is in the very heart of the storm. Second, the story is in a way a parable of the Church, especially a Church threatened by the storms of persecution. At such times, Jesus can seem very distant, "asleep". Yet, we need to maintain our trust in his care for us and to realise that he is always in the boat (an image of the Church) with us.