While everyone experiences faith-shaking trials, asking for God’s help is the key to survival says Pope Francis.
“When we have strong feelings of doubt and fear and we seem to be sinking, (and) in life’s difficult moments when everything becomes dark, we must not be ashamed to cry out like Peter, ‘Lord, save me,'” he says.
Commenting on the passage in Matthew’s 14:22-33 when Jesus walks on the water and his friend Peter starts sinking and calls on Jesus to save him, Francis explained the Gospel’s meaning in his Angelus address on Sunday.
“This Gospel narrative is an invitation to abandon ourselves trustingly to God in every moment of our life, especially in times of trial and turmoil,” Francis said.
Like Peter, believers must seek God’s help.
We need to learn “to knock on God’s heart, on Jesus’ heart,” Francis explained.
“Lord, save me” is “a beautiful prayer. We can repeat it many times.,”
Francis said believers should reflect on how Jesus responded: immediately reaching out and taking Peter’s hand, showing that God “never abandons us.”
“Having faith means keeping your heart turned to God, to his love, to his fatherly tenderness amid the storm.”
“In dark moments, in sad moments, he is well aware that our faith is weak; all of us are people of little faith — all of us, myself included.”
“Our faith is weak; our journey can be troubled, hindered by adverse forces,” but the Lord is “present beside us lifting us back up after our falls, helping us grow in faith.”
Francis explained the disciples’ boat on the stormy sea is a symbol of the church, “which in every age encounters headwinds, very harsh trials at times: we recall certain long and ferocious persecutions of the last century, and even today in certain places.
“In situations like that,” he said, the church “may be tempted to think that God has abandoned her. But, in reality, it is precisely in those moments that the witness of faith, the witness of love, the witness of hope shines the most.”
Source
- NCR Online
- Image: YouTube
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