I remember the story of a soldier. His faith taught him never to carry a gun or hurt anyone.
He went to the front lines with only his medical bag and his strong belief in God.
He walked into the gunfire and found wounded men, one-by-one.
He tied them to a rope chair and lowered them down the steep cliff by himself.
The story goes that he saved 75 soldiers without firing a single shot.
What a story about courage and bravery!
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said to his disciples, “Courage! Don’t be afraid!”.
At the time they were on a boat rocked by the waves, for the wind was against it.
Because they saw Jesus’ walking on the water, they thought it was a ghost.
The voice of Jesus calms their fears.
Have you been in a situation where you feel your life was rocked by the waves of problems and ghosts of the past, and you didn’t know what to do but cry in fear?
Who gave you the courage to move on and start anew?
Like that soldier in the story, we have our own story of courage and bravery.
It was the Lord who gave you the courage to move on.
But I know some of us are still confronted by emotional stress, exhaustion, doubts, fear, anger, grief and anxieties of this life.
We often lose our focus but remember the words of Jesus, “Courage! Don’t be afraid! It is me.”
~ Contributed by Fr Line Abilgos of St Michael’s Catholic Church, on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin.
