John Newton was the son of an English sea captain. When John was ten, his mother died, and he went to sea with his father. At 17, however, he rebelled against his father, left the ship, and began living a wildlife. Eventually John took a job on a cargo ship that carried slaves from Africa to America. He was promoted rapidly and soon became captain of the ship. John Newton never worried about whether the slave trade was right or wrong. He just did it. It was a way of making money. Then something happened to change all that. One night, a violent storm blew up at sea. Everyone on board was filled with panic. Then John Newton did something he hadn’t done since leaving his father’s ship. He prayed. “God, if you will only save us, I promise to be your slave forever.” God heard his prayer and when John Newton reached land, he kept his promise and quit the slave trade. Later he studied for the ministry and was ordained pastor of a small church in England. There he won fame as a preacher and as a composer of hymns. One of the most moving hymns John Newton composed is one that praises God for his conversion. The words read: “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found – Was blind, but now I see.” In todays gospel, we read about another storm,  this time we have the apostles in a boat with Jesus,  and a very heavy storm arises.  They are terrified, they really think that they are going to die.  Then they see that Jesus is asleep,  and doesn’t seem to care.  They call him, Jesus gets up and he calms the sea and the wind,  Now they are safe, and the storm is over. Like John Newton, they too were changed forever, after their prayers were answered. This storm became for them a great lesson.  They learned two things: in the first place, their own weakness, their own  fear. In the second place, they experienced the power and the friendship of Jesus. They had a friend in the boat who loved them,  who would care for them and who would never abandon them.  Over this past year we have all experienced a very heavy storm called covid 19. A tiny, invisible virus, thousands of times smaller than the head of a pin has tested our resilience, has torn apart our economies and has very much tweaked our priorities. This storm has taken away our peace and sometimes has led us to despair.  Yet in all of this the Risen One walks among us, carrying us, comforting us, consoling us. Winston Churchill said: “if you’re going through hell, keep going”. Just as Jesus was present with his disciples during the storm on the lake, he is present with us in our storms as well. Let us never forget that we have a friend in the boat who we can turn too and who will help and comfort us. Jesus never leaves us, never abandons us,  He is never really asleep.  All we have to do is call Him.  We must also remember that in the good moments in our lives, when everything is going fine,  somebody else may be going through a storm, they may need a hand, they may need a friend.  Let us then offer our hand and our friendship, to those who are going through a dfficult moment,  just like Jesus did.