Gospel: Mark 4:35-41

First Reading Job 38:1, 8-11

Job is awed by the majesty of God

The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said:
“Who shut within doors the sea,
when it burst forth from the womb;
when I made the clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling bands?
When I set limits for it
and fastened the bar of its door,
and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stilled!”

Second Reading; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

St Paul’s life is guided and sustained by the love of God.

Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.Â

Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.

Gospel: Mark 4:35-41

Jesus calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

On Stormy Seas

Today offers one of several gospel stories where Jesus calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee. It is a story with which most of us can identify. We have seen graphic pictures of hurricanes, twisters and tornadoes in different parts of the world. The one thing that strikes me at such times is just how powerless and helpless the people are. No matter how much warning they got, when the twister arrives, they just have to breathe deeply, hold their nerve, and hope it soon passes. There is absolutely nothing they can do. Today’s gospel would put Jesus right there in the eye of the storm.

Even though Jesus was with them, they still ran into a storm. As a matter of fact, right at the height of the storm, Jesus was sound asleep! His presence with them doesn’t mean that they would never encounter difficulties; it does, however, mean that, when the difficulties do arise, all they have to do is to call on him. Jesus was in a deep sleep in the midst of a storm. He had really closed down, no doubt because of exhaustion. In an earlier stage of my life, I used imagine Jesus lying there, with eyes closed, but he was peeping out under his eyelids to see how the apostles were dealing with the situation! Today, I think of Jesus being there with them; they have seen enough evidence of his care for them; if the storm comes, he’ll sleep away because by now they should know what to do. Not knowing what to do they called on him; he woke up, calmed the storm, and then began to show them that their fear came from the fact that they didn’t really trust him to care for them. From a human point of view, it’s hard to blame them! And yet, this is the strength of faith and trust that Jesus called for. When Peter was sinking as he tried to walk on water, Jesus told him he had little faith or he wouldn’t be so afraid.

A young native boy approached manhood and, as was the custom with his tribe, he had to undergo several tests to prove his bravery, before acceptance into the fighting braves of the tribe. He was brought out into the middle of a jungle and left there alone all night. He was terrified. Every leaf that fell, every branch that creaked, every movement in the underground caused his heart to pound. He never knew a night could be so long. On several occasions, he would have run away, but where does one run in a jungle in the middle of the night?

After what seemed an eternity, the light of dawn began to filter through the trees. In a relatively short time his eyes got used to the growing light, and soon he was able to see clearly. He moved from where he was and as he approached the nearest tree he was amazed to find his father standing there with a gun. He had stood there on guard all night long. The young lad’s instant response was to think, “If I had known that my father was watching over me like that, I would have slept soundly all night.” When we die, we will discover that our Father was standing guard there all the time.

Chrysostom, on calming the storm

St John Chrysostom’s eloquent and scholarly homilies on Matthew were preached in Antioch towards the end of the fourth century. Intent on promoting moral reform among his hearers, in dealing with any passage he concludes by exhorting them to some special virtue. About the storm on the lake in today’s Gospel he says that Jesus took his disciples with him, not by chance but in order to make them spectators of the miracle that was to take place. For like a wise trainer, he intended to make them undismayed in dangers and modest amid honours.  “Having sent away the others, he kept his disciples with him and  let them be tossed with the tempest; at once correcting their pride, and disciplining them to bear trials with dignity. For while the previous miracles were indeed great, this storm contained a major kind of teaching, and was a sign like that of old. For this reason he takes with him only the disciples. When there was a display of miracles, he also let the people be present; but when trial and terrors were rising up against him, he took with him only the champions of the world, whom he was to train.”

Chrysostom goes on to moralise about the disciples’ fear: When the tempest was at its height and the sea raging, they awoke him, saying, “Lord, save us: we perish.” He rebuked them before rebuking the sea, because the storm was allowed for training purposes and was an image of the trials that would come to them later. And as Paul later said, “I would not  have you ignorant that we were pressed beyond our strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life;” and again, “Who has delivered us from so great a death.” Their very alarm was a valuable lesson, making the miracle seem all the greater and their remembrance of the event more lasting. Having expected to be lost, they were saved, and having felt the danger, they knew the greatness of the miracle. So that is why Jesus slept: for had he been awake when it happened, they would not have been fearful, nor would they have begged him. Therefore he sleeps, to give time for their fear and heighten their awareness of what was happening.”

He concludes by saying that Jesus “stretched out no rod, as Moses did, neither did he stretch forth his hands to Heaven, nor did he need any prayer, but as for a master commanding his handmaid, or a Creator his creature, so he calmed and curbed it by word and command only; and all the surging ended immediately, and no trace of the disturbance remained. So the evangelist declares, “And there was a great calm.” Therefore what had been spoken in praise of the Father, Jesus showed forth again by his works. For it says, “he spoke and the stormy wind ceased.” Likewise here he spoke, and “there was a great calm.”