‘Why Are You Afraid?'

Passing Through the Storm with Jesus

- Sr. Vicky Victorino, PDDM

As a child, one of my favorite Bible scenes was Mark’s story of Jesus asleep on a cushion in the hull of the boat while a storm rages on and His disciples in panic (see Mark 4:37-40). I wondered then, how could Jesus sleep in times like these?

This was the same Bible passage that Pope Francis chose during the celebration of the Urbi et Orbi Extraordinary Blessing at Saint Peter’s Square on March 27, 2020. It was such a touching event at a tormenting time when the coronavirus outbreak raged on all over the world. In fact, there was no one on the square save the Pope and a few of his liturgical ministers because of the severely enforced lockdown in Italy and the Vatican. I would like to believe, though, that we were millions praying together with Pope Francis at that moment, following him on the various media platforms that transmitted the unprecedented event.

In reflecting on the passage from Mark, Pope Francis voiced out our very own fears: “Like the disciples in the Gospel, we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time, important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat . . . are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying, “We are perishing” (v. 38), so we, too, have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this.”