Two Storms

Homily for Saturday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time

The readings today draw us into two very different storms—one inside the human heart, and one on the Sea of Galilee—but both reveal the same truth: God enters our chaos not to condemn us, but to restore us.

The story of David’s sin continues today as Nathan confronts David with a hard truth. David had sinned gravely, and he had hidden it. Yet God does not abandon him. Instead, God sends Nathan—not to destroy David, but to awaken him. The moment David says, “I have sinned against the Lord,” the long road of healing begins. God’s justice is real, but so is God’s mercy.

Once again we respond with Psalm 51. It is David’s own cry after being confronted: “A clean heart create for me, O God.” David cannot fix himself. The Hebrew word for create in this passage is “barah,” Hebrew verb that can only be used when referring to God as the Creator. David cannot undo the past. But he can open his heart to the One who can make it new. This is the posture of every disciple: not perfection, but surrender.

Then we move to Mark’s Gospel, where the disciples face a storm so fierce that they fear for their lives. Jesus is with them—yet they panic. When He calms the wind and sea, He asks, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” It’s not a rebuke meant to shame them. It’s an invitation: Trust Me. Even here. Even now.

Put together, these readings remind us that storms come in many forms. Sometimes the storm is our own sin, like David’s. Sometimes it is fear, like the disciples’. Sometimes it is grief, loss, or consequences we cannot escape.

But in every storm, God does the same thing: God steps toward us, sends truth to wake us, sends mercy to cleanse us, and is present to steady us.

The question is not whether God is with us for God is always present. The question is whether we will let God intervene in our storm.

So today, echo David’s prayer: “Create in me a clean heart.”  And echo the disciples’ plea: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”— because the answer is always yes. God comes, is present, and bestows peace.