Our parishioners and areas of mission in Marikina city can easily resonate and identify with the experience and concern of the disciples in today’s Gospel. Living along the Marikina River, almost every year they experience firsthand what storms and floods could do to properties and human lives. Last November 2020, for instance, our parish Barangays “Tumana and Malanday” and communities were severely hit by a tropical storm - typhoon Ulysses. People were caught in the middle of the night when Typhoon Ulysses brought destructive wind and left many residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas trapped in floodwaters and some taking refuge in evacuation centers. Many of the houses, places of worship, and communities were all left in mud. Since Ulysses, many of the parishioners are now putting up new structures. Countless families are adding a third or fourth floor to their houses as “safety insurance”, in other to avoid the destruction of any unexpected storm or flood, which are indeed not unusual in the “Barangays”. The fear never leaves the people, including myself. In fact, the start of the rainy season is already beginning to resurrect the old painful memories of typhoon Ulysses. There are already nights when heavy rain keeps people awake, still agitated by a need for vigilance that previous storms and floods had stirred.

Storms or floods are not uncommon in our everyday life and activities. In this regard, the Gospel passage for this Sunday feels very much close to our experience and for people like us living through difficult times. There are both inner and outer storms we experience in ordinary living. And storms are more than clouds, wind, and rain. There are the storms of our health. The storms of the corona virus pandemic. The storms of misunderstanding in communities, marriages, families, and friendships; the storms of war, violence, and terrorism in the world. And the real tropical storms of rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans. One perhaps might not experience tropical storms like us living along the Marikina River. But no one is an exemption from the very real storms that form around us and those we love. As the saying goes: storms are a fact of life which we must learn to be aware of, to accept, and adapt to. We cannot escape them. We can only learn to deal with them.

Let us, therefore, be aware that these storms may arise to threaten, overwhelm and destroy. The tropical storms do cause devastation and death; while Life’s storms make God’s presence hard to perceive and even challenge our faith in Jesus like the disciples in the Gospel. In the midst of whatever kind of storm, the Gospel for this Sunday reminds us that there is one thing that must resist devastation, which is our faith in Christ. Our faith must remain and must be left standing in the midst of whatever kind of storm. Stormy times are moments to relish our faith in Jesus and its fruits in our lives. And to be confident that he will bring calm where there seems to be only storm or fear. As we strive to journey in faith let us trust that he never abandons us and that he could calm the storms of our fears. Have a blessed Sunday.