The United Nations report on climate change, published last week, was a wake-up call for the entire world.  The report was published at a time when the entire planet is experiencing a barrage of dangerous natural calamities.  In Canada, the continual forest fires in BC, severe drought in Alberta and Saskatchewan and scorching heatwaves are the best examples of the immediate threat to our civilization. In addition, the burning State of California and extreme drought of the entire West Coast of the USA, burning forests of Siberia, Greece, Turkey, dried up rivers in South America, melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica add to the magnitude of the immediate climate changes in our world.  We as humanity stand on the edge of despair. Our planet is at a turbulent time when the entire human civilization should reflect and act accordingly.  The above reflection on the current events of these climate changes prompts all of us to react and intensify our responsibility towards the entire world. We are the main cause of these climate changes, which will only accelerate in the future.

The above introduction was prompted by a reading of the Gospel of St. Luke 8:22-25, where Jesus Christ is sleeping in a boat during a storm.  The story of Jesus Christ resting on his journey to the other side of a lake is a sobering moment for all of us to reflect upon our life as an entire civilization. This is a story of human behaviour at a time of calamity and God’s providence in the world. It is a story of puzzling comfort and disparity of human behaviour.

As presented by St. Luke, on the way to the other side of the lake, the disciples’ ship encounters a storm, which threatened their life.  While they laboured to maintain their sheep on the course, Jesus Christ, after spending so many days with people, fell asleep to rest. While the majority of the disciples, experienced fishermen, struggled to maintain the boat on the surface of the lake, Jesus Christ rested in the midst of dangerous waves, thundering sounds of lightning and screaming and scared disciples.  At the very end, the disciples call upon their teacher for help.  Only then, Jesus Christ, upon the desperate cry of the disciples, silences the winds and the waves of the lake.  According to St. Luke, the waters became calm.

The story of the disciples on the lake during the storm can be a reference to the story of humanity in this day and age when the entire world is at the time of climate hurricane. Like the disciples, all of us, including governments, are scrambling to change the course of the effects of climate change, but because of the enormity of the storm, we are in despair.  We are sounding alarms through media networks, experiencing the pain and demise of the planet, but we are unable to motivate ourselves to call upon God for help.  Although every corner of the earth hears and feels the cries of the earth, we are unable to reach out to our sleeping Lord.  Our loving God is in the midst of us, unintentionally on the side resting, while we are searching for help except for His. The only difference between us and the disciples on the boat is the ability to recognize the immediate danger in our life.  Until the calamities hurt us directly we always compartmentalize them as unrelated and insignificant to our daily chores and responsibilities.  How easy is it in those moments to switch the channel on our TV or radio station in order to tune to something irrelevant and secondary?  It is a story of a contemporary man being self-absorbed to the confines of our immediate dwellings.  The only problem in all of this is the size of the boat: our world, which has been called for the last fifty years a small global village.  As we witness these immense climate changes in the world, we are unable to change the immediate effects of those changes upon our life as Christians, Canadians and civilizations.

Knowing that God is among us, as He was on the boat with the disciples, are we able to reach our hands to God for help? Do we have enough courage and humility as humanity to humble ourselves and ask God for help, or is our pride so overpowering that all we can do is to stand on the edge of denial and do nothing?

There are times when a small prayer can break the silence of God who is waiting for us to call out to Him.  When the planet earth cries for help, God hears and acts.  When the pain of the earth is so great, there is nowhere to go except toward God.  When the soul of humanity rises its sound of despair to God, the clouds of heaven rain upon the earth with a mist of Divine Grace, which we desperately need at this time.  If we could only recognize, acknowledge, and awaken the need for God as the disciples did when He was resting on the boat, the calm would be heavenly.