Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 - Tuesday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time [Bl. Junipero Serra OFM]
[Amost 3:1-8, 4:11-12 and Matthew 8:23-27]"Lord, save us! We are perishing!" He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?"
It's as amazing to me that Jesus was able to sleep in that rocking boat as it is that he was able to calm the storm! In the version the Gospel of Mark presents, the disciples not only wake him up but question his sleeping when they are scared of drowning! One must remember that the sea represented a very dangerous and chaotic place to Israelites who were not a sea-faring nation. Storms can come up very quickly on the Sea of Galilee (Lake of Gennesareth), as I discovered when I was on a tour boat there. My boat was probably larger than the one Jesus and the disciples were in, and the motion was quite noticeable!, In such a frightening situation, it would not be easy to consider the scriptural tradition that shows that God calms the storms and brings order out of chaos! The disciples do have enough faith, however, to wake Jesus. They address him as "Lord!" They had "followed him" into the boat! The experience of him creating the calm in the storm had to be a bit frightening as well. "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?" We have the advantage of knowing that Jesus can do these things. But would we get into the boat with him? Discipleship means having faith that Jesus will see us through rough seas as well as smooth ones. That's the sort of savior that he is. We of little faith are challenged by him to greater faith! AMEN
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