(4).jpg)
Reflection by Dom Ryan
I have been on a boat on the Sea of Galilee in Spring. It is a beautiful place – blue sky, blue water, green shorelines. It is not hard to understand how Jesus, after a busy day, could take the opportunity for a moment of rest, far from the crowds that followed him, demanding many things of him. So he fell asleep on the peaceful waters.
Crew on the boat we were sailing on two thousand years later talked to us about how in rough weather, the body of water was not what we experienced on that beautiful Spring day. They talked of its wildness, its danger, when the weather turned.
In the Gospel passage today, we hear that Jesus is accompanied on the boat by his closest friends, some of whom were trained fishermen, very familiar with the waters on which they were sailing. For the storm to worry them, we can assume that they were being confronted by some challenging conditions. However, their trust in Jesus outweighed their fearful response to the storm. They woke Jesus, knowing that he would do something to bring them comfort. And he did. He calmed the storm.
We can hear their awe: “Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’
Who is he indeed? We have the hindsight provided to us by Scripture and our faith. This is Jesus, Son of God, God here with us. Of course he could calm the storm!
As usual, the story shows us not just Jesus the worker of wonders. It also shows us Jesus the teacher: ‘Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?’
In Mark’s Gospel, the author is at pains to show us that coming to fully know Jesus and his mission is something that takes time for his disciples, even though they have the benefit of being with him, watching him work wonders, watching him live and preach the Word of God.
We don’t have that. We have stories such as this, and the Tradition of faith to which we belong. We might judge the disciples harshly here. How could they be so fearful? After all, they had Jesus with them. But how often might we have responded with fear in different situations? Responded in fear when we might instead have taken consolation in faith?
That is our challenge today. How can we have faith in the love of God when there appear to be storms all around us? In the entrance antiphon for today’s Mass we read that God is the strength of God’s people. In this antiphon we pray for God to save God’s people, to be present to us and bless us.
May each of us be blessed by the love of God and strengthened in our faith so that when we are beset by storms and other challenges, we too can know that God will be there for us, calming the waters that threaten to swamp us.
Dom Ryan
St Ignatius, Neerim South
