Dear Preachers:
Today’s gospel stirs memories. A Dominican sister and I were part of a team of preachers in the diocese of West Virginia. One morning we were with a Scripture sharing group in a small house, on a hillside, in a coal mining town south of the capital Charleston. After a prayerful beginning one of the local people read the passage and we all reflected on it in silence. After the silence I asked, what seemed like a silly question deep in Appalachia, “Have you ever experienced a storm at sea? There were no storms, as far as I knew, on the nearby Kanawha River.
A senior woman responded, “Yea! 30 years ago the coal mine up the hallow collapsed and 18 of our men died. We all had someone in that coal mine, or knew a relative of someone who died. They were tough times.” Then she added, “That was our storm at sea!”
I guess someone reading these reflections might be able to read the gospel of Mark in its original Greek language. But educated or not, male or female, coal miner or professor, long-time citizen or recent immigrant, we are all joined by our common experience. We can say, with that woman, we know what a storm at sea is; like those coal miner families who suffered those tragic deaths. We have lived through the breakup of a long relationship; a dream we had to cancel; the loss of a job and family security; a marriage in crisis; feeling spiritually adrift in need of direction and anchoring. We know what those disciples in the story knew about “waves breaking over the boat.” We know the first part of this gospel story firsthand.
We probably also have experience of the next part as well; the part about helplessness, terror and calling out for help. We have known the feelings of abrupt and unwanted changes in the routine of our lives. Maybe we have also lived through the part about Jesus sleeping. About how he feels absent just when we need him the most; how he doesn’t seem to show up and do something right away; how we have struggled on our own to keep from going under — until finally panic moves in and makes itself at home in us. We cry out from the storm, as those disciples did, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” We know this part of the story as well.
Then comes the grace of the story: even though we have turned to him only because we are in deep, up to our necks. Helplessness has us on our knees, yet he is there with us asking the same question he asked those in the boat, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” It’s less a rebuke and more a reminder that our slight faith hasn’t turned him away and he does do something for us. Granted, he doesn’t always act as miraculously as he did for those terrified disciples, by turning the stormy seas into a calm glass-like lake. And, at times, it does seem he is asleep and we are on our own. Still, we find ourselves able to battle through the chaos of the days, one day at a time.
When we look back on that dangerous, faith-challenging time we say, as so many others have said, “I know that he was with me, how else could I have gotten through that storm?” That’s the other part of the story. Even when the seas are not calmed and, for some reason, change or improvement doesn’t come quickly, still we are strengthened and our faith is built up in the struggle. Certainly not by our own efforts or grit, but because of the One who seemed asleep, but was right there by our side in the storm — whether we felt him there or not.
I have heard stories like this more than once. A woman I know went through a serious bout with cancer. She said something that sounds incomprehensible and I want to honor her struggle and not make it sound trite, or an easy victory. “The disease was a blessing for me. It threw my life into chaos, robbed me of sleep, exhausted me and took a terrible toll on my physical and emotional life. It put a strain on my family as well. It undermined my security and the patterns of my daily life. But, it was a blessing, because it helped me put things in perspective. Things that used to preoccupy me: how clean my house was, the frictions at work, my husband’s idiosyncrasies, my children’s squabbling — weren’t as important. I woke each day and began to see the miracle of my life. Now I worry less about the future and live more in the present. I didn’t know if I would have a future. I did know I had the present. I wasn’t going to let it slip through my fingers as I had most of my life.”
Then she added, “Each day I prayed the Lord’s Prayer, ‘give us this day our daily bread.’ I trusted that what I needed for this day would be given me in any new storm I had to face. And it was give me.”
I would say that was the faith Jesus was looking for in his disciples. I believe that even though the storm didn’t go away, they would have made it through the storm with him, their “daily bread,” in the boat. That’s the faith he is building up for us today, at this Eucharist, especially if we are on rough and uncharted seas right now. He gives us himself this day, daily bread for the journey.
We can see why our first reading was chosen today. God speaks to Job “out of the storm.” It is a theophany, a manifestation of God’s power and presence. (It suggests what is happening in the gospel as well.) At this point in the story of Job, each of his “comforters” has spoken and Job has answered them. But the problem raised by Job’s afflictions remains: why do humans suffer? It is now God’s turn to speak, “out of the storm.” God’s answer simply states God’s transcendence over humans and power over nature. God is sovereign over everything. In today’s passage that rule is over the sea and prepares us to hear the gospel when Jesus will manifest his authority over the storm.
After hearing the gospel the question raised by the awe-filled disciples is ours as well, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
DO YOU STILL HAVE NO FAITH?
The boat in which Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee was surprised by one of those unforeseen and furious storms not rare any summer evening. Mark the evangelist uses the incident to arouse faith in the Christian communities when facing difficult situations.
The narrative is not just a comforting story for Christians today, as a promise of divine protection assuring the Church of a peaceful voyage across the difficult moments in history. It is a decisive call by Jesus to trust in and follow Him during difficult moments: “Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?’
Mark describes the scene from its very beginning. He tells us that “it was in the evening.” The darkness would soon fall upon the lake. It was Jesus who suggests that they “cross over to the other side.” It is not just a
simple invitation. They are invited to travel together in the same boat towards a rather unknown region: the pagan province of Decapolis.
Suddenly a gale broke out and the waves came against the fragile boat that became flooded. The scene was frightening, as the disciples tried to avoid being swamped by the waves. Jesus was peacefully sleeping in the stern, his head resting on a cushion.
They woke him up, amazed as they were to see him unconcerned and unafraid. Obviously, they could not perceive Jesus’ confidence in his Father.
In fact, they couldn’t understand Jesus’ indifference. They were full of fear and panicky: “Master, do you not care…that we are going down?”
Jesus, in fact, does not reply or try to explain anything to them. He just stands up and pronounces some sort of exorcism: and the wind dropped and all was calm again. When everything became quiet and all were awe-struck and silent, he asked them two questions – that we can consider being asked of us today: “Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?”
What is happening to us Christians today? Why are so many of us afraid to face some crises and have so little faith in Jesus? Is it the fear of just being swamped by so many doubts and questions thrown at us? Or is it, perhaps, the blind search for all sorts of securities that impede our own intelligence from trying to read calmly the situation? Why do we fail to see and believe that God will guide the Church towards a future more faithful to Jesus and his Gospel? Why do we insist on relying only in the past traditions and fail to hear Jesus’ invitation “to cross over to the other side” and start
preaching and sowing the new seed of the GOOD NEWS in a world that has become indifferent to God, but that remains in real need of hope.
WHY ARE WE SO FRIGHTENED?
“Why are you so frightened? Have you still no faith?” These two questions that Jesus asked his disciples are not just anecdotal. According to the evangelist Mark, such questions will be put to all of Jesus’ followers who face similar crises. These are questions that the followers of Jesus have to ask even today: What is the root of our cowardice? Why are we afraid of the future? Have we lost our faith in Jesus?
The gospel narrative is short. It all begins with a command of Jesus: “Let us cross over to the other side.” His disciples know that on the other side of lake Tiberias lies the pagan territory of the Decapolis, a different strange country with a culture hostile to their religion and beliefs.
Suddenly, the Gospel says, it began to blow a gale, something parallel to what was happening within the group of disciples. The howling wind and the waves began to break against the boat, and the water flooded everything. They were swamped and they became scared. How could stand up to the hostility of the pagan world? Their mission would be at risk, still more, the very survival of the group would be at risk.
Awakened by his disciples, Jesus “rebuked the wind…and the wind dropped…and everything was calm again.” What is surprising is that the
disciples were scared. They were frightened by the winds, and now they “are with awe…seeing that the wind and the sea obey him.” On the positive side, they have experienced some change: they had recourse to Jesus; and they had learned about a saving power that they had not seen before. Now they began to learn that with Him everything was possible.
The Christian world today is in the midst of a very severe storm and there are many among us who are really frightened. Many of us do not dare “to cross over to the other side.” Those new modern cultures appear hostile and strange to us. The future seems uncertain and it scares us. We don’t like to try something new. Some of us, in fact, seem to feel safer looking back rather than proceeding ahead.
Jesus can be a surprise to most of us. The Risen Christ has the strength to inaugurate yet another new phase in the history of Christianity. All that He is expecting from us is Faith. This Faith must free us from so much fear and cowardice, and it will give us the courage to walk on the footsteps of Jesus.
QUIETING THE STORM
Stormy waters can represent chaos in life. The apostles’ boat, the Church, became a safe haven once Jesus entered it.
Water is an unusual symbol in that it can stand for many things, some of them opposites. As Christians, we certainly relate to the cleansing waters of Baptism, and we speak of the Water of Life. But we can forget that water can also represent chaos and death. Te survivors of the worst tsunami of modern times will probably not relate to water as being “peaceful” for many years to come, if ever. In the beginning, we read in Genesis, the waters covered the earth, and they were violent. They represented chaos that God had to overcome by creating dry land. In his anger, God almost completely destroyed creation in a flood, and God used water to slay the Egyptians who pursued His people.
The story of Jesus walking on the water, in a similar synoptic, and quieting the storm, is a vivid parable of how God reveals Himself to his children. Even when God reveals himself in spectacular moments, a simple response of faith is all that is required. Peter walked on water until he took his eyes off of Jesus and noticed the crashing waves.
Matthew’s narrative most probably is a symbolic incident, not a real miracle that took place in one of those many fishing outings by the apostles. Let’s remember that most gospel parables and stories had a catechetical purpose. In them Christ always appears as a confirmed revelation of his humanity, “It is I.”
Do you really believe that Peter walked on water? If you do, that’s good; if you don’t, you have a lot of company. Most biblical scholars think this is just a story to demonstrate the authority of Jesus.
In Mark’s gospel, unlike the more dramatic narrative of Christ and Peter walking on the waters, the disciples were terrified because of a wild sea, period. And they were shocked and angry that Jesus slept peacefully in the midst of it all. “Do you care that we are perishing?” Christ responded with a different question: “Do you not yet have faith?”
Once again, the two different narratives of an originally single incident may reveal the same catechetical purpose of each evangelist. Jesus was confident that his Father was with him at all times, and even in extreme danger, he knew that his Father’s eyes were looking on him with love. Was Jesus really ‘asleep’ in the midst of that raging storm?
Here is how they explain it. Water is such a powerful force that only God can control it. God alone created the oceans and halted the flood and split the Red Sea. Therefore, if Jesus could make that water ‘walkable’ and the storms calm down, he must be well connected with God. This should be one of our favorite stories whether or not it happened. You just have to love a guy who jumps in the water without thinking to reach a friend; just as you have to admire a woman who dashes into a building in fire without thinking – to save her child.
Without thinking! The heart has reasons that reason doesn’t know about. They did it for love. Better to drown or burn than to be separated from the beloved.
Of course, these are unusual circumstances. Ordinary life is lived on a much more mundane level. Most of the time, Peter was simply walking, talking, eating, fishing and resting with Jesus, but storms and crises do break out not infrequently.
Does God talk to people today? Many modern skeptics would answer, “No.” Sigmund Freud once said, “If someone told me that God spoke to them in a dream, I would interpret that statement to mean that they merely dreamed God spoke to them.” Today, we might even call it delusional, or psychotic, and prescribe powerful drugs. Modern culture has no room for a voice from God, and anyone who claims to hear from God is labeled mentally ill. But we are willing to listen to fortune tellers, hand readers and horoscopes!
So we have to be ready at all times. Someday we may have to make a quick choice to walk on water or dash into a fire. And for sure, when we die, we must make the immediate choice to jump into God’s arms or drown in darkness.
In one sense, the results don’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether the apostles sink or the mother dies. Everyone dies some way some time. What matters is that he or she took the leap – because He will be there!