1, Faith is the basis for salvation.
Christ clearly said that there is no condemnation to those who have Faith. Then, added, that those without Faith are already condemned. That is; those who have Faith will not have to face God in judgment because they are certain of their salvation, while whose without Faith will, also, not face in judgment because they have been judged.
Those who will be judged at the last Judgment are a completely different set of people as clearly described in the Gospel of Christ the King. But they are not the subject of this Gospel.
2. What is Faith.
Faith is knowledge and obedience to the commands of Christ. Ignorance and disobedience to the commands of Christ is the sin against Faith that shows one has no Faith. It has become very important for a Christian to know whether he has Faith or not.
So God has made it a point to test mankind every second of their lives so man can know if he has Faith or not. God, always, knows if a man has Faith or not. But man does not know it. The test is for man’s sake.
Thus God tested, even, the angels. Then Adam and Eve who sinned against Faith. To show how serious is the sin against Faith, Adam and Eve together with the human race was condemned to hell for it. Thus Christ had to come and become man to save the human race.
3. How did Christ save man?
By giving man commandments to obey. Every time man obeys Christ’s command he grows in Faith. Man must grow in Faith until his Faith is perfected with the eventual help with the grace of God. The occasion to grow in grace comes in the form of a test.
If man passes the test, he grows in Faith. If he fails, he loses his Faith. To recover his Faith and proceed to the perfection of Faith, God gave mankind the life of repentance wherein man receives the grace of Penance that forgives his sin against Faith and the grace to proceed to the perfection of Faith that becomes enlivened with the theological virtue of Charity.
4. The test of Faith of the disciples in the storm at sea.
For their training in the life of Faith, the disciples was constantly tested, and they were helped by Christ, Himself, to pass their test and progress towards the perfection of Faith, attained on Easter and whose Faith was enlivened with Charity on Pentecost.
In today’s Gospel, the disciples were having some beginner’s test. The test, always, consist in asking the question; ‘do you believe that Jesus is God? If your answer is ‘yes,’ you pass the test. If ‘no,’ you fail the test. When your answer is correct, you grow in Faith, if wrong, you commit the sin against Faith and regress in the spiritual life.
Here comes the disciple’s test. Christ pulls His disciples away from the crowd to enter the boat and set sail. He pulled His disciples away from the crowd because He knew the disciples will fail the test and wanted to spare them of the embarrasment.
Christ boarded the boat and went to sleep as the disciples set said. The ‘sleep’ was the test. As the journey proceeded, a storm broke, the wind was strong and waves high. The disciples was afraid, went to Christ saying, ‘Lord, help us. We are in danger of sinking.
The disciples knew Christ was God who could calm the wind and the sea. That is all fine. Their Faith was good up to there. But then they thought that Christ could not calm the wind and sea if He was sleeping. There is where they failed the test. Their idea that Christ had to wake up to calm the wind and sea was their lack of Faith. God does not have to wake up to calm a storm. Christ corrected His disciples, ‘why you weak of Faith.’ With this correction, the disciples grew more in Faith. When God corrects, it is for man to grow in Faith.
5. God corrects man in two ways.
When a soul is growing to perfection in the right way, God, sorts of, corrects him so he can go faster forward. This is rare and occurs only in great saints.
The more common correction that God gives is in the form of chastisements, when man sins and is in the state of being condemned for all eternity. Such a man does not realise he has sinned against Faith. He has no Faith, has sinned against Faith and is going to hell. The Corona virus is a chastisement God is giving mankind to inform mankind that they have sinned grievously, they have not repented, and they die they will go straight to hell…..unless they repent by acquiring through a life of repentance the virtue of Penance that will forgive their sins.
The length of the pandemic that is now on the second year shows mankind is not repenting. And as expected when man is not repenting, mankind is getting worse by sinning more and more against God. In fact, most of the human solution to stop the pandemic consist in committing more sins against God.
Sinners are getting richer, sinners are getting everything they want, sinners are released from jail, sinners win elections, sinners are financed to commit more sins like abortion. While the good are punished for doing good, are prevented from doing good like going to Mass. The good are punished for having Faith in God and not in man. To have faith in man is a sin. With this arrangement, the world is getting worse and millions of souls will be going to hell.
People are dying. We have to ask the question, ‘where are their souls going?’ Without Faith, they go straight to hell. And nobody cares. Nobody is teaching why there is a chastisement. Nobody is teaching what is the test and how to pass the test.
The world is like a boat in the middle of a storm amidst strong winds and high waves. And everybody is boring holes in the boat.
6. God save us.
Like the disciples in the boat, amidst the strong wind and waves, the Catholic world have ordered the praying of the rosary and pray ‘God save us from this pandemic.’ But they are not expecting the sleeping Christ to wake up and save the world. They expect the vaccine to be distributed and save the world. That is total lack of Faith in God. It is mere human faith on a vial of vaccine. That cannot save souls.
That world wide prayer, led by the Vatican, will not stop the pandemic. God will not stop something that He had sent for the good of mankind.
It is all right to wear masks, like the priest who said Mass with a face mask because he forgot his false teeth. That was a great need. It is all right to wear face shields and observe social distancing. It is even all right to take the vaccine. But your Faith must not be on these. Man will still, eventually, die. He needs Faith in God, who controls all of creation. Right now, there is no Faith in God. The world is going downhill to hell. The fire of Hell is already showing in many cities.