🗓️31 janIV Sunday after Epiphany anticipated

On this Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, the liturgy presents us with yet another manifestation of the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, this time not through a star or the transformation of water into wine, but through His absolute command over revolting nature. The commemoration centers on the miracle of the calmed storm, where the barque of Peter, a prefigurement of the Holy Catholic Church, is lashed by violent waves while the Master rests. This episode is a perennial symbol of the Church's journey through the centuries: often surrounded by the storms of persecutions, heresies, and the tribulations of the world, she seems to be in imminent danger of shipwreck. However, the spiritual lesson is clear and consoling: Christ is in the boat. Even though He seems to sleep, allowing the trial to test and strengthen the faith of His disciples, His presence is the guarantee of safety. Today's liturgy invites us, therefore, to renew our trust in divine protection, acknowledging our weakness and crying out for the help of Him who has the power to command the calm, both in the agitations of history and in the interior storms of the human soul. Another Epiphany of Jesus' divine power. Today He commands the sea and the winds. This miracle is a symbol of the world's salvation from the storm of sin, and a guarantee of continuous protection over the barque of St. Peter, amidst the waves of the age. Trusting in this divine aid and conscious of our own weakness, we ask for the same great calm for our lives.

🎶 Introit (Ps 96,7-8 | ib. 1) [Audio]

Adoráte Deum, omnes Angeli ejus: audívit, et lætáta est Sion: et exsultavérunt fíliæ Judæ. Ps. Dóminus regnávit, exsúltet terra: læténtur ínsulæ multæ.

Adore God, all you His Angels: Sion heard, and was glad: and the daughters of Juda rejoiced. Ps. The Lord hath reigned, let the earth rejoice: let many islands be glad.

✉️ Epistle (Rom 13, 8-10)

Fratres: Némini quidquam debeátis, nisi ut ínvicem diligátis: qui enim díligit próximum, legem implévit. Nam: Non adulterábis, Non occídes, Non furáberis, Non falsum testimónium dices, Non concupísces: et si quod est áliud mandátum, in hoc verbo instaurátur: Díliges próximum tuum sicut teípsum. Diléctio próximi malum non operátur. Plenitúdo ergo legis est diléctio.

Brethren: Owe no man anything, but to love one another; for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law. For: Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet: and if there be any other commandment, it is comprised in this word: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The love of our neighbor worketh no evil. Love therefore is the fulfilling of the law.

✠ Gospel (Mt 8, 23-27)

In illo témpore: Ascendénte Jesu in navículam, secúti sunt eum discípuli ejus: et ecce, motus magnus factus est in mari, ita ut navícula operirétur flúctibus, ipse vero dormiébat. Et accessérunt ad eum discípuli ejus, et suscitavérunt eum, dicéntes: Dómine, salva nos, perímus. Et dicit eis Jesus: Quid tímidi estis, módicæ fídei? Tunc surgens, imperávit ventis et mari, et facta est tranquíllitas magna. Porro hómines miráti sunt, dicéntes: Qualis est hic, quia venti et mare obédiunt ei?

At that time, when Jesus entered into the boat, His disciples followed Him: and behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves, but He was asleep. And His disciples came to Him and awaked Him, saying: Lord, save us, we perish. And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up, He commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm. But the men wondered, saying: What manner of man is this, for the winds and the sea obey Him?

💭 The sovereignty of charity and the peace of Christ in the Church

The liturgy of this anticipated Sunday weaves together in a masterly way the moral doctrine of charity with the mystical theology of trust in Divine Providence, presenting us with the Church as a boat sailing safely under the command of Christ, even when lashed by the storms of the world and sin. The Apostle Saint Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, establishes that charity is the "pleroma," the fulfillment of the Law, teaching that the only unpayable debt of the Christian is mutual love, for charity is not merely a feeling, but the form of all virtues and the practical fulfillment of divine commandments. This operative charity is what maintains the internal cohesion of the "little ship" of the Church; without it, the external waves of the world would find breaches to shipwreck the community of the faithful. In the Gospel, we see the manifestation of Christ's human and divine nature: He sleeps as man, weary, but wakes as God, omnipotent. Saint Augustine, in his sermons, warns us that the storm at sea reflects the storms of our hearts; when temptations arise and fear assaults us, it is because Christ is sleeping in us, that is, our faith is asleep and forgetful of His real and sovereign presence (Saint Augustine, Sermon 63). The cry of the disciples, "Lord, save us," is the liturgical prayer par excellence, the Kyrie eleison that the Church raises perpetually. Jesus' answer is not only a miracle over meteorological elements, but a pedagogical rebuke regarding "modicae fidei" (little faith). He demonstrates that true peace, the "tranquillitas magna," is not the absence of problems, but the submission of all things to the Will of the Word. Just as the winds and the sea obey, we, rational creatures, must obey through charity. The Catechism reminds us that the Church is this visible project of God's love, and even if evil seems to prevail, the Lord remains Lord of History. Therefore, to awaken Christ in us means to reactivate the living faith that works through charity, knowing that, with Him being with us, no storm has the final word.