Jesus stood up, rebuked the wind and said to the lake: Silence, be quiet! This miracle was impressive and remained forever in the souls of the Apostles; it served to confirm their faith and to prepare their courage in view of the harder and more difficult battles that awaited them. The vision of a sea in absolute calm, submissive to the voice of Christ, after those great waves, remained engraved in their hearts. Years later, the memory of it during prayer had to restore serenity to these men many times when they faced all the trials that the Lord was announcing to them.
On another occasion, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus had told them that what the prophets had foretold about the Son of Man would be fulfilled; for he will be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, and will be mocked, and scourged, and scourged, and spit upon; and after they have scourged him, they will put him to death, and on the third day he will rise again. And at the same time he warns them that they too will know hard times of persecution and slander, because the disciple is not more than the master, nor the servant more than his master. If the master of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more those of his household. Jesus wants to persuade those first and also us that between him and his doctrine and the world as the kingdom of sin there is no possibility of understanding; he reminds them that they should not be surprised to be treated in this way: if the world hates you, know that before it hated you it hated me. And so, St. Gregory explains: "the hostility of the perverse sounds like praise for our life, because it shows that we have at least some righteousness in that we are annoying to those who do not love God: no one can be pleasing to God and to the enemies of God at the same time". Therefore, if we are faithful, there will be winds and waves and storms, but Jesus will be able to say to the raging lake: Quiet, be quiet!
At the beginning of the Church, the Apostles soon experienced, along with very abundant fruits, threats, insults and persecution. But they did not care about the environment, for or against, but that Christ should be known by all, that the fruits of the Redemption should reach the farthest corners of the earth. The preaching of the Lord's doctrine, which humanly speaking was a scandal for some and madness for others, was able to penetrate all environments, transforming souls and customs.
Many of the circumstances with which the Apostles were confronted have changed, but others are still the same, and even worse: materialism, the excessive desire for comfort and well-being, sensuality, ignorance, are once again a furious wind and a strong tide in many environments. To this must be added the yielding - on the part of many - to the temptation to adapt the doctrine of Christ to the times, with serious distortions of the essence of the Gospel.
If we want to be apostles in the midst of the world, we must count on the fact that some - sometimes a husband, or a wife, or parents, or a long-time friend - will not understand us, and we will have to be firm of spirit, because it is not a comfortable attitude to go against the current. We will have to work with decision, with serenity, without caring anything about the reaction of those who -in many aspects- have identified themselves in such a way with the customs of the new paganism that they are incapable of understanding a transcendent and supernatural sense of life.
With the serenity and fortitude born of an intimate relationship with the Lord, we will be a firm rock for many. At no time can we forget that, particularly in our days, "the Lord needs strong and daring souls, who do not compromise with mediocrity and who penetrate with a sure step into all environments": in the associations of parents of students, in professional associations, in university cloisters, in trade unions, in the informal conversation of a meeting.... As a concrete example, the influence of families in social and public life is of particular importance. "They themselves must be "the first to see to it that the laws not only do not offend, but uphold and positively defend the rights and duties of the family" (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 44), thus promoting a true "family policy" (ibid.). In this field it is very important to encourage the dissemination of the Church's teaching on the family in a renewed and complete way, to awaken the conscience and the social and political responsibility of Christian families, to promote associations or to strengthen existing ones for the good of the family itself". We cannot remain inactive while the enemies of God want to erase every trace that points to man's eternal destiny.
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