St. Paul says the love of Christ overwhelms us like when we fall in love, when we experience great care and attention and kindness from another person. This experience of being overwhelmed is what we see in the Gospel, as well. The disciples literally being overwhelmed by the sea. And when we’re overwhelmed our first reaction can be fear because we can’t control it. And the way we deal with the problems of life is often by becoming an intensely controlling person. We can control either in a overt, explicit way and become very pushy or very authoritarian. We can also control passive aggressively, negatively. But this need to control others is a destructive one if it arises out of fear. (…) If we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed and we realize that it is love that is overwhelming us it is our source of hope, confidence and faith. So when Jesus says to the disciples in the boat Why are you so frightened? How is it you have no faith? he’s pointing to this link between fear and a lack of faith.
Homily 23 June 2024 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
