Word to the Wise
Saturday, February 1, 2020 - Saturday in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Sam 12:1-7a, 10-17 and Mark 4:35-41]A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!" The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" They were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"
A friend of mine once gave me a small plaque that had the following words on it" "Sometimes the Lord calms the storm, and sometimes the Lord lets the storm rage and calms his child!" In today's gospel, Jesus does both but not before letting the storm "do its thing." The scene has comic elements: big waves, howling wind, tossing boat, water coming into the boat, passengers either hanging on for dear life or bailing and Jesus asleep on a cushion!!! The passengers have to wake him up!!!! It is not because they believe he can make the storm go away but because they can't understand why he can be calm when they are panicking!!!! Hmmmm.....do we sometimes feel that way? Do we say to God, "Wake up!!! Do you not care that I/we/they are perishing?"
In the Gospel According to Mark, the disciples do not "get the big picture" of who Jesus really is until Jesus is crucified and risen. In today's scene they focus on the weather control and wonder how Jesus did it. They do ask the right question, "Who is this, then...?" but not as a matter of real faith. Jesus challenges them on this, "Do you not yet have faith?" Maybe we are the ones who are sleeping!
Wars, earthquakes, epidemics, political conflicts, personal trials -relationships, exams, employment and financial problems, etc. - can be real storms that toss us about. We may well be tempted to wonder why God seems asleep and uncaring because we want all the trouble to disappear. In my own experience, God's care shows in "the way forward" which may come in an idea or by reaching out to someone who has wisdom and can help me get "the big picture." Praying for good weather is not a bad thing, but knowing with God's help how to deal with whatever weather comes seems better to me! AMEN