Word to the Wise
Saturday, January 27, 2024 - Saturday in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Sam 12:1-7a, 10-17 and Mark 4:35-41]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?" [Mark]
A friend once gave me a small plaque with the words: "Sometimes the Lord calms the storm; and sometimes the Lord lets the storm rage and calms his child!" There seems to be a little bit of both in the account in today's gospel passage from the Gospel According to Mark. The disciples probably woke up Jesus to get him to help with bailing the boat! What seems obvious, as Jesus tells them, is that they do not YET have faith. And even when Jesus has calmed the wind and sea, they are still asking, "Who is this whom even wind and sea obey?"
In the Gospel According to Mark, the disciples in this incident are acting in accord with the overall vision of the evangelist, which is that everything before Jesus' death and resurrection must be seen in the light of his death and resurrection. So, whatever power Jesus displayed in his ministry was seen, at the time it occurred, in a kind of superstitious way. Faith in "demons" of all kinds was very much a part of the culture.
The fundamental question that can arise from this is. Is it possible to believe in Jesus without faith in the cross and resurrection? The answer from the gospel is that we cannot. His death and resurrection are the final proof of the power that calms the wind, the waves and the child! AMEN