JOB 38:1,8-11; PSALM 106:23-26,28-32; 2 COR 5:14-17; MARK 4:35-41
THEME: FOCUS NOT ON THE TURBULENCE!
Dearest in Christ, today’s readings call on us to look unto Jesus and believe that once he is with us in our boat of life, every other thing that happens around the boat does not matter. We are to focus, not on the outside turbulence and storms but on the person who is in the boat with us.
a. THEY TOOK HIM WITH THEM… (Mk 4:36)
In today’s gospel, Jesus, having concluded teaching the people about the kingdom of God using parables (Mk 4:26-34), and when it was evening, invites his disciples saying, “Let us cross over to the other side” (Mk 4:35). It is important to note that it was Jesus’ initiative that his disciples should go with him to the other side of the lake. But the mot interesting part of the whole journey, is that the evangelist tells us that when the disciples were leaving, following Jesus’ instruction, they did not go into the boat, leaving him behind or leaving him to travel with a separate boat, rather, they took him along (παραλαμβάνουσιν) that he might be in the same boat with them.
At certain point in life, we see the need to cross over to another side in search of a better life. It may be in the very morning of our lives, or in the evening (that is, when we must have exhausted all our strategies) but the most important thing is that we allow this ‘crossing over’ to be God’s initiative.
But how can we know if it is God’s initiative if not by simple and humble prayer, attentive listening to God’s voice that speaks unceasingly to us through signs and events of life? And when we have discerned this God’s invitation for us to make a change of environment, occupation, partner, business, life in general, we must not leave God behind in our new adventure, rather we must hold him tight and take him along with us wherever we go.
b. HE WAS IN THE BOAT, AND A GREAT STORM OF WIND AROSE (vv36b-37)
As the disciples were moving with Jesus to the other side of the lake of Galilee, a great storm of wind arose against them. There are two lessons we can derive from this:
1. Whenever we plan for a change or to face a new life, we must make room and preparation for obstacles that will arise in order to discourage us from such a move. There is no aspect of life that knows no obstacles and challenges. It is our ability to stand firm in such challenges, and not give up which will make all the differences.
2. Even with the presence of Jesus in the boat, the disciples had to face this great challenge and threat to their life and mission. That we are constantly moving with Jesus is not a shield from natural disasters, moral challenges, and different obstacles to our destiny. Job was constantly living a life pleasing to God, yet the greatest of all calamities and challenges besieged him.
c. WHY ARE YOU AFRAID? DO YOU NOT YET HAVE FAITH? (Mk 4:40)
When the disciples saw what was happening, they became afraid. They turned to where Jesus was, they saw him sleeping calmly on the cushion. So, they went and woke him up and said to him, “Does it not bother you that we are perishing?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and commanded the sea to be still, and it was so. Then he asked his disciples, “Why are you afraid? Do you not yet have faith?” Reading this Jesus’s question to the disciples, one would wonder why Jesus had to ask them that question. Is it not because of their faith in Jesus that the disciples went to Jesus, woke him up, and presented their situation to him? What then does Jesus mean when he asked them “Do you still not have faith?”
Yes, the disciples manifested their faith by calling on Jesus to come to their help, but Jesus expected a greater demonstration of faith in him from his disciples.
The disciples demonstrated more their fear on the sea that seemed to have come to destroy them, than on the trust in Jesus’s presence with them. If they had such faith that insofar Jesus is with them in the boat, no other thing, no matter how ferocious, will cause them to be afraid, they would not have gone to Jesus to wake him up. This is the kind of faith Jesus wants his disciples to have in him, the kind of faith that believes that once Jesus is in the same boat with me, no other thing matters to me.
Sometimes our prayers can also be a manifestation of our lack of faith in God. When we believe that God is there always with us, it shows even in the words of our prayers. Sometimes, the things we say in prayer, the way we pray, and our attitude show our uncertainty of God’s presence in our lives. There is a saying that goes thus: “what is necessary and important is the presence of a Lion in a room, his state (whether asleep or awake) is of no importance.” Dear child of God, in the face of the difficulties, when tossed up and down by the storm of life, what is necessary for you to continuously remind yourself is “His name is EMMANUEL.” You only need this assurance that God is there with you.
The problem God had with Job was that Job was focused on what he was suffering that he lost the consciousness that God is with him even in that his situation. God wants us to focus more on his presence in our lives, and not allow the storms of life to make us live and act like those whose gods are very far away from them.
d. WHO THEN IS THIS, EVEN THE WIND AND THE SEA OBEY HIM? (v.41)
When the disciples saw how the wind and the sea were calmed by Christ, they were filled with awe, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” This statement of the disciples may seem like a question, but it is more an exclamation of faith. In the first part, they asked, “who then is this?” But in the second part, they responded to their question, “He is the one whom the wind and the sea obey”, that is to say, “He is that Being who has authority over the wind and the sea.” The question then is “who is this person that has authority over the destructive power of the wind and the sea? This brings us to the first reading from Job 38:1.8-11 where God responding to Job, speaks of himself as one who contains the sea, setting its bars and doors and dictating its boundaries and rules.
Hence, “Jesus, the one who commands the wind and the sea, and they obey him” is that same God who executes absolute authority over the sea which is presented as the most destructive creature. Therefore, the disciples are not to be like Job who sold himself to the fear of the storms of life that he forgot the calmness of God who is and moves with him. The disciples are rather to believe that once Christ is at the center of their lives, they need not worry even when the greatest storm besiege them, filling the boat of their lives with water, because even when it seems he is sleeping, nothing happens without his knowledge of it.
Fr. Nnamah Henry Chukwuezugo
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri