by Fr. Jonathan H. Cholcher
The first century Christian catechism called The Teaching (Gk., Didache) contains the following spiritual law: “Welcome activities occurring to you as good knowing that nothing happens apart from God” (3.10). Our Lord says, “God the Father makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust”; then, later: “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matt. 5:45; 10:29-31).
God’s will governs all, what we would call the good and the bad. As Job, finally afflicted with horrible sores by the devil with God’s permission, declared to his wife: “If we accepted good things from the Lord’s hand, shall we not endure evil things?” (Job 2:15). This means that whether we encounter good or bad conditions in life, God intends them for our salvation. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). As we say in the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, “Preserve the good in goodness, and make the evil be good by Thy goodness” (from the Anaphora prayer). The ultimate proof of this truth is the death of God’s own Son on the Cross, who was made “perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10; 5:8-9).
The recent hurricanes having affected Florida and the American southeast are prime opportunities to witness these spiritual laws at work. What lessons was God teaching in the storm? What, if any, lessons did we learn from the storm, both about God and about ourselves in relation to God?
First, a hurricane impacting our human society is what we call a natural disaster, akin to earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and wild fires. While meteorologists have gotten much better at advance warning and preparation for the impact, a hurricane is an immense force of wind and water beyond the ability of human beings to control or contain. When a hurricane strikes there will be damage, loss, clean-up, and repair.
Even though we explain hurricanes almost exclusively in terms of natural forces, e.g., high and low pressure systems, water temperature, and evaporation, etc., these natural disasters are not entirely subject to natural forces. The prophet Nahum writes: “The Lord is patient and His power is great, but the Lord will not acquit the guilty. His way is in destruction and in a whirlwind; the clouds are the dust of His feet…The Lord is merciful to those who wait on Him in the day of affliction, and He knows those who reverence Him” (Nahum 1:3, 7). From the story of Job, God gave the devil permission to afflict Job’s possessions and children with storms (Job 1:12, 16, 19). Likewise, in the Book of Revelation, angels are described in numerous places affecting natural processes either positively or negatively, for example: “After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow in the heart, on the sea, or on any tree” (Rev. 7:1).
The first lesson from the storm is to accept the reality of the storm itself, preparing as best one can in a physical and material sense, but trusting in the power of God to guide us through the storm and its aftermath, always looking to discern God’s hand at work directing people to the love of God and neighbor in Christ. Confronted with the storm, the faithful wait on the Lord with patience and courage, but unbelievers cower in fear and dread of destruction. In the storm, we witness Jonah sleeping in the hold of the tempest-tossed ship (Jon. 1:5), as our Lord did centuries later before being awakened by His terrified disciples to calm the waves (Matt. 8:24).
Second, the storm and its wake teaches how unstable and transitory this world is; therefore, we cannot trust in a false notion of worldly security, but put our trust in God. At the conclusion of His Sermon on the Mount, our Lord contrasts the immovable house built on the rock with the fallen house built on the sand. The rain will fall, the floods will rise, and the winds will blow and beat against the house. Only the house built on the rock will stand, because “it was founded on the rock” (Matt. 7:25). Of course, our Lord with this figure is speaking of “whoever hears these sayings of Mine – the word of God, and does them,” he is the “wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt. 7:24).
The physical storms of life reveal a deeper spiritual meaning of our existence, namely, the spiritual turbulence either threatening to undermine our permanent connection with the eternal kingdom of God, or a trial to confirm ourselves genuinely grounded in faith in Christ. For instance, the Psalmist cries: “Save me, O God, for the waters flood my soul. I am stuck in the mire of the sea, and there is no place to stand; I came to the depths of the sea, and the storm overwhelmed me…Those who hate me without a cause multiplied even more than the hairs of my head; my enemies who persecute me unjustly have become strong” (68:2-3, 5). The Apostle Paul writes about coming to the unity of the faith in the perfect Man, Christ Jesus, “that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).
“And, just as the person who constantly stands on the rock mocks the waves, so the person who enjoys constant worship and is watered by divine words, seeing that they have stood themselves on the correct assessment of matters as if on a rock, is captured by not a single human matter, in that they have situated themselves above the incursion of day-to-day affairs” (St. John Chrysostom).
Saint Paul provides this vision of clarity as he and 275 others experienced a severe storm at sea and subsequent shipwreck (Acts 27). Taken along as a prisoner, St. Paul foreknew the ship would not survive the journey; however, he also knew God’s greater purpose, an angel instructing him, that he must bear witness to the Gospel before Caesar, and that no loss of human lives would occur. Advising the centurion and Roman soldiers throughout the ordeal, the Apostle encouraged his fellow travelers to see the journey through to the end that God intended (see especially Ps. 106:23-30).
One final lesson from the storm, among others, concerns the response the faithful have to the storm regarding their neighbors. Why did this storm happen to these people, and now what can we do, if anything, to help? Job’s friends initially could only weep in silence seeing his predicament, and then they proceeded to blame Job’s misfortune on his own unrepented sin (see Job 2:16-18, and their speeches). It is common for people to stand in accusation of others when disaster strikes, particularly those personally unaffected. Such an attitude betrays a spiritual callousness born of self-righteousness. It blinds people to God’s greater purposes, as God later spoke to Job out of the whirlwind explaining this test to reveal the righteousness of faith in the Almighty God (Job 38-41).
The righteousness of faith in God always manifests itself in love of one’s neighbor, and a storm shows this most clearly. Instead of assigning blame and conditions for relief, the faithful see in the storm an opportunity to help others unconditionally, whatever the need and whatever the expense. This help certainly includes material resources like food, water, and shelter, but it also necessarily includes mental, emotional, and spiritual support. As this help is given, spiritual discernment takes place, and suddenly the storm strips away attachment to the merely physical things of this life and puts into focus the most important things of life: care of persons themselves, our families, our neighbors, for whom they are as creatures and children of God in Christ.
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?…It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:32, 34-35, 37).
The storms of life come in waves, yet God joined us in the storm by becoming One of us – Christ Jesus. He possesses “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18), but importantly, Christ’s authority (to make disciples of all nations) is exercised by dying to worldly attachments and rising to newness of life in the grace and communion of the Holy Spirit, in other words, living in Baptism and the observance of Christ’s commandments. These are the lessons from the storm.
