In this morning’s first reading, we see the scene where the prophet Jonah is running from the Lord. Jonah’s response to the storm was much like we see Jesus’ in the gospel. While everyone else is frantically rowing the ship trying to fight the world raging around them, Jonah is lying at the bottom of the boat, sleeping soundly. After interrogating him, they realize that Jonah is why they are in this predicament, and Jonah says, “Yeah, the only answer is to throw me overboard.”
So here we have a storm, a violent one about to take their lives. We have a solution, get rid of the thing that is causing the storm. What do they do? They hang on to it for a moment. They didn’t act immediately on what they knew needed to be removed from their situation. They continued to row the boat; they prayed that God wouldn’t blame them; they worried about the solution to their problem. In the end, they removed Jonah from the ship, and the “sea’s raging abated.”
On this Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, we are reminded clearly that sometimes we have to remove things from our lives. We must divest ourselves of anything holding us back from being the person God created us to be. Heaven is our goal, and this life is much like the boat. Things will rage around us, and sometimes those storms directly result from who or what we let into our ship. Unfortunately, we, like the men in the story, all too often, hesitate to remove things from our lives. Instead, we justify habits, worry about people’s feelings, want to look like the world, or simply choose to keep it in our lives regardless of how much the wind kicks up or the water rocks and beats against us.
This attitude is so common in today’s world that we have people who constantly go through the same problems over and over and never change the way they live. They go into the same relationships, hang out at the same places, have the same friends and same habits, and yet wonder why their life continually snaps back into the same place. If you want a different life, you’ve got to live a different life. If our goal is Heaven, we must live here as if that is our home.
Saint Francis gave up everything, even renouncing his family bonds because they were in the way of his eternal destination. We have to do the same. Anything or anyone who holds us back, makes us fall into sin, or in some way prevents us from being the person we are supposed to be either must change with us, or we must move on.
But there is another crucial lesson that shows us how life looks when we move on. Life isn’t always going to smooth out. We were never promised some feel-good, emotionally high journey full of mountain top experiences. Instead, Jesus promised us the Cross. “Take up your cross and follow me.” So what do we do when the storms kick up? Suppose our boat is resting safely in the hands of the Lord. If Jesus Christ Himself is navigating the waters and steering our vessel… well. In that case, you and I will be so calm that we can lay down amidst the rocking and noise the devil is kicking up around us and rest peacefully even in the darkest, most difficult times.
God willing, you’ll find me at the bottom of the boat sleeping peacefully. That is my hope, prayer, desire for myself, and wish for you.
A homily for the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi: October 4th, 2021