Our reactions to terrifying events and difficulties in life tend to show what kind of faith and relationship we have with God. People who live in natural religiosity will approach life with all its difficulties through constant fear. Every day is an encounter with unknown powers and forces beyond their control and capacities to manipulate. Life is a string of uncontrollable events that come from a capricious God or change happenings. Life vacillates between good luck and bad luck, storms and calms, rain and droughts, health and sickness, or good harvests and plagues. This generates a constant state of fear and terror and the perception of a sleeping, distant God who is unconcerned with their needs. Life becomes a constant feeling of abandonment and fear. The Peruvian author Ciro Alegria sums up this attitude with the title of his book about the life of peasant farmers in the mountains “El Mundo Es Ancho y Ajeno” or The World is Vast and Foreign. That is natural religiosity – fear, terror, doubts, and hopelessness – my own world, my own life is too foreign and big for me.
Today we find the disciples in a dire situation. A storm on the lake threatens them while they are crossing the lake at night in a boat. While the boat is imperiled and the disciples are panicked, Jesus is sleeping. When they awaken him, Jesus is more surprised by their fear than by the storm. Before he rebukes the storm and the forces of nature, he rebukes the disciples’ lack of faith.
Jesus’ personal relationship with God the Father gives him a profound sense of calm and peace. He has confidence that the Father will protect and guide him at all times. He experiences God’s action in his life daily. He has surrendered himself in confidence to the Father’s will. Just the opposite to the despair and fear of natural religiosity, Jesus has peace, confidence, and hope in the presence and action of God.
How do you face the storms of life? How goes your relationship with God? What is the core of your relationship with God and your life: fear or trust?
“Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”
Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.
Image: CANVA CJ Dunn 08 June 2026 AI generated.