Do not be afraid!

1 Jn 4:11-18; PS 72:1-2, 10, 12-13; Mk 6:45-52

Monday morning, as I started my morning prayer, I sensed Jesus’ presence, and at the same time, I also sensed death. I immediately was in terror as I knew my daughter-in-law was preparing to head to her next chemo treatment. My prayer changed from the rosary to begging Jesus my thoughts were wrong. Within a few moments, peace overcame my terror and I was able to continue on with rosary and the rest of my morning prayers. It was a few hours later my wife found out about the death of her uncle.

Jesus has a unique relationship with each of us. Your encounters with Jesus are going to be different from my encounters. And our encounters are different from the disciples’ encounters with Jesus. When we are overcome with terror from illnesses or death, a boat being tossed around or we think we are seeing a ghost, we simply have to ask Jesus for peace, for strength to overcome whatever terror we are experiencing, and we will receive it.

For many years, because of my poor prayer life, I often found myself in terror during various experiences. It wasn’t until I started working on my prayer life, that I came to realize those experiences were really encounters with Jesus that I simply had not recognized. As we hear in the first reading from 1 John, “one who fears is not yet perfect in love,” I obviously had worked to do on perfecting my love. That meant I had to work on my personal relationship with Jesus.

To have a personal relationship with Jesus, is really the same as any other relationship. You have to spend time with them and you need to talk to them. You have to share your life with them as they share their life with you. The stronger your relationship becomes, the more loving it becomes, the more you are willing to do whatever you can for your friend. And likewise, they are willing to do anything for you, including bringing your peace, and taking away your fears.

So spend some time working on your personal relationship with Jesus, by spending some time, each day, in prayer.

More Photos taken on the Sea of Galilee during the 2014 Pilgrimage.