Christ Calms the Storms of Our Hearts

Faith Awake in the Storm

1. By the Lord's blessing, I will speak to you about the lesson from the Holy Gospel that was just read. I'll use this opportunity to encourage you not to let faith sleep in your hearts against the tempests and waves of this world.

Did the Lord Christ, who has power over both death and sleep, have sleep overcome Him against His will while sailing? If you believe this, then Christ is asleep within you. But if Christ is awake in you, your faith is awake. The Apostle says, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Ephesians 3:17).

This sleep of Christ, then, symbolizes a profound mystery. The sailors represent souls journeying through the world on wooden vessels. The ship itself symbolizes the Church. Individually, we are each temples of God, and each person's heart is the vessel in which they sail. No one can suffer shipwreck if their thoughts remain good.

2. When you hear an insult, it's like the wind. When you become angry, it's like a wave. When the wind blows and the wave swells, the ship is endangered—the heart is in jeopardy, tossed back and forth.

When someone insults you, you long for revenge. But once you've taken revenge, you rejoice in another's harm and suffer shipwreck yourself. Why does this happen? Because Christ is asleep in you.

What does it mean that Christ is asleep in you? It means you have forgotten Christ. Rouse Him up, then! Remember Christ! Let Christ awaken in you and pay attention to Him.

What did you want? To be avenged. Have you forgotten that when He was being crucified, He said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34)? He who was asleep in your heart did not wish to be avenged. Wake Him up, then—call Him to mind. The remembrance of Him is His word; the remembrance of Him is His command.

And then, if Christ is awake in you, you will say, "What kind of person am I to want revenge? Who am I to threaten another person? I might die before I'm avenged. And if I depart from this body with my final breath, inflamed with rage and thirsting for vengeance, Christ will not receive me—He who did not seek vengeance. He will not receive me—He who said, "Give, and it will be given to you; forgive, and you will be forgiven" (Luke 6:37-38). Therefore, I will restrain my anger and return to the peace of my heart." Christ has commanded the sea, and calm is restored.

3. What I've said about anger, apply as a rule in all your temptations. A temptation arises—it is the wind. You are disturbed—it is a wave. Wake up Christ, then, and let Him speak with you. "Who is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" (Matthew 8:27). Who is this whom the sea obeys? "The sea is His, for He made it" (Psalm 95:5). "All things were made through Him" (John 1:3).

Imitate the winds and the sea, then—obey the Creator. At Christ's command, the sea listens. Are you deaf? The sea hears, and the wind ceases—and do you still rage on?

What am I saying when I declare, "I'll do this, I'll devise that plan"? Isn't this just continuing to rage, unwilling to be still in obedience to Christ's word? Don't let the wave overcome you in this troubled state of your heart.

Yet since we are only human, if the wind drives us on and stirs up the feelings in our souls, let's not despair. Let us awaken Christ so that we may sail on a peaceful sea and reach our homeland.