Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are called to reflect on what the Lord wanted us to remember from today’s readings that is for us to put our trust in Him, believing in Him and putting our faith in Him. We ought to entrust ourselves to Him and not to depend on our own power and might alone. If we do that certainly we will be better able to face the challenges of the world, together with God rather than facing them alone on our own.

In our first reading today, we heard of the words from the account of King David and prophet Nathan as recorded in the second Book of the prophet Samuel. King David and prophet Nathan was talking about what happened between him and Bathsheba, although initially David did not realise it. God knew what David had done in having a part in the death of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, when David coveted Bathsheba and inadvertently having a child with her. He attempted to cover things up and that led to the demise of Uriah, as David was worried that his affair would be exposed otherwise.

But David resorted to settle things with his own decision and considerations, and did not trust in the Lord. He should have owned up his mistakes, as after all, he was a human just like all of us, and just as all of us, he could make errors and mistakes too. As we know, even great saints were once sinners themselves, just like us. David erred and did not initially own up to his mistakes, trying to cover up and hide all that he had done. As a result, that was why he fell deeper and deeper into sin.

The prophet Nathan directly told David of the Lord’s displeasure at his actions especially at his hypocrisy when David was told the story of a poor man who had his property and items seized and taken away by a richer man. That was exactly what David did, when he took Bathsheba away from Uriah and made her to be his own. Through that rebuke from the prophet Nathan, the Lord reminded David that what he has done was truly a great sin before God, and was unbecoming of him as the one chosen and made to be King of Israel.

What David did right after that then was how he immediately humbled himself before the Lord, and wrecked with guilt and the desire to repent from those sins he committed. He humbled himself before everyone and showed great remorse over his sins. God forgave David his mistakes and the faults that he had committed. But he still had to endure the consequences for his infidelity and immoral action, as the son born from David and Bathsheba had to die. Nonetheless, God forgave David and showed the immense and wonderful nature of His mercy.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of how the Lord Jesus travelled with His disciples on boat in middle of a storm and calmed the storm and the waves that battered their boat. The disciples were very afraid and terrified, and they thought that they were going to die. But the Lord reassured them and told them that they had absolutely nothing to fear at all. They needed to trust Him and have faith in Him. He calmed the waves and the storm and the disciples were all astonished, witnessing all that just happened before their very own eyes.

That boat and the disciples inside them in fact represent us all Christians, all united in the Church of God. All of us are travelling through that stormy seas, representing the turbulent world that we are living in today. But God is with us, journeying with us and leads us to the right path. We have nothing to fear if only we can trust in Him wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, more often that not, we did not trust in Him enough, and we put our trust more in our own power, abilities, strength and manner of dealing with things.

That is when we allow all the temptations, fears and coercions all around us to affect us, that we will end up abandoning the Church and the Lord, like a person jumping off the ship in the middle of the storm. Those people who do so will likely perish. That is thus what happened to King David as mentioned earlier too. His action in trying to justify himself and to cover up his sins led to even more mistakes and faults further on, until he humbled and stripped himself of all of his glory and pride, and admitted his mistakes before God and all the people.

Are we also able to do the same too, brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we reject the temptations of this world, the pressure and coercions to disobey God and sin, and instead seek the Lord with a renewed conviction and dedication? Are we willing to commit ourselves thoroughly to the Lord from now on? These are some of the questions that we will have to ask ourselves as we progress on in life. Let us all discern our path carefully as we decide how we are to carry on our lives as faithful disciples and followers of the Lord. May God be with us always and may He bless our every actions and deeds. Amen.