Forever faced with challenges to our well-being
Be men and women of faith, fearless in danger, and reliant upon the living God
The more we practice that awareness of his presence, confirmed in the Eucharist, comforting in the Spirit, and formed in our heart by the Father, the more we will be ready when our time comes, and we cross the threshold from squalls to the beatific vision and immortal life with our friends, families, and see Jesus face to face.
Memorial of Saint John Bosco, Priest
Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Mark 4:35-41
Today’s readings perform several divine acts of God working to engage us intimately while revealing the purpose of his presence among us. Even though the stories of Jesus’ miraculous interventions highlight his power and mount — considerable evidence that he is divine — another more important task drives him. His intentions return time and again insisting we can and must depend on him in everything that happens to us.
In today’s scripture account, Mark 4:35, Jesus is asleep in a boat as the disciples cross the Sea of Galilee, going from Jewish territory to the land of Gentiles. On both sides of the Sea, Mark places Jesus in a similar series of miracles — exorcisms, healings, and feeding the crowds. There is no difference between the recipients of Jesus’ miracles, whether to the tribes of Israel or in the towns of Gentiles. He is for everyone, and everyone gets the same God.
These early Galilean miracles in Mark’s gospel take place without opposition from the scribes and Pharisees, by the way. Jesus doesn’t encounter the religious leader’s objections until Mark introduces them in Chapter 7. Why is this important? It identifies Jesus’s initial freedom to work his magic and teach from scripture in the everyday life of Jews and Gentiles.
Jesus is doing two things — gathering leaders, whom he will call apostles, and crowds who will spread his combined work. He must accomplish a dual task for this duality of people — not between Jews and Gentiles, rather between leaders and followers. He brings a double-edged sword to their lives. The revolutionary yet common-sense version of his teaching on scripture, and the mirror he reveals to show a coming restored life in Heaven.
Jesus isn’t like John the Baptist, pointing out that God is in charge. Jesus is the one in charge, the manifestation of God himself. He is not playing a role in pointing to the Father but revealing he is equal to the Father, a vulnerable human, and unmistakably divine at the same time.
OK, to the gospel. A life-threatening storm comes upon them while they cross the sea. They ride in that era’s version of a bus. Jesus is in the back of a 16-25 passenger transport, napping. A storm comes upon them, and they’re trapped in a tempest of wind and steely rain. Even though they have pulled over to the edge of the road, the wind threatens to overturn their vehicle, flipping them into the sea to drown. Jesus snores away, unbothered.
We know how this ends, of course. Jesus is awakened. He rebukes his disciples for being afraid, not yet convinced of who he is and what he is capable of. Yet, it’s more than that. The disciples have failed to grasp that when Jesus is visibly present, they can rely upon his judgment. But also, and more importantly, when Jesus isn’t present, snoring away in his dreamland, they should have still relied upon his judgment.
This is an important lesson for them in the future. For us, too. Taking the Eucharist, Jesus into us, cements God’s presence with us. So too should we recognize the presence of God with us in between the sacrament, however long we must wait to receive him. In both situations, we’re still faced with challenges to our well-being, including life and death situations.
Just a few weeks ago, at Sunday mass, a woman suffered a life-threatening event collapsing in the middle of Father Chance’s sermon. During the rest of Mass, she struggled to survive in the back of the Church, while two hundred people prayed for her. She ultimately died when they finally got her into an ambulance, dead before she got to the hospital.
Was God there? Was he paying attention? Of course he was.
There is more, as there always is in scripture. If, in fact, the bus had overturned and fallen into the sea, where everyone died, including Jesus, the disciples remained in Jesus’ charge. It may be God’s will that we die at some unplanned time, at an unfair point that makes no sense. Even in that horror, God’s will attends to us in the best form.
“Why are you so fearful?” Jesus asks in Mark. Matthew conveys the same bus ride story where Jesus naps. Upon awakening, Jesus tell them they are men “of little faith.” Luke also details the Galilee trip across a sudden and mortally dangerous sea. Jesus asks, “Where is your faith?”
Three versions to grasp the fullness of Jesus’ plea for his disciples to be men and women of faith, fearless in danger, and reliant upon the living God.
We similarly struggle. Under the extraordinary awareness of God’s presence, we feel safe, protected, and cared for. But what will God do with our bodies, treasures, families, and even nation? These are our top-of-mind concerns. Jesus will do what he will.
This trust in God, an unbridled faith, is difficult for us to practice with God. It was just as difficult for the disciples.
Two chapters later, in Mark 6:45, another disciple bus trip over the Sea of Galilee takes place. This time, Jesus is not with the disciples. He stayed back. Jesus walks by them on the water, out for an evening stroll, as God would do, and the disciples are again caught in the middle of a squall. They call out to their Rabbi, the one they hope can save them, and Jesus steps into their boat and calms the sea.
Matthew reports on what may be yet another, a third trip across the water. The disciples see Jesus walking toward them, and Peter, likely remembering the previous two events, steps into the water, temporarily upends physics, and traipses toward Jesus. Yet another message for us. Jesus grabs Peter by the hand and rolls his eyes at Peter’s fragile intimacy with the God of the universe standing next to him upon the sea.
Faith, trust, and intimacy with God varies for all of us. We may not know it, but Jesus offers us daily opportunities to see him at work in us. Few of us remember them. “Awake,” he shouts at us. If we pay attention, the series of events with God increase as we become accustomed to him. This growing awarenss hopefully increases into an almost constant awareness of his care and love. He desires that we collaborate with him.
The more we practice a recognition of his presence, and celebrate that intimacy in the Eucharist, comforted in the Spirit, and formed in our heart by the Father, the more we will be ready when our time comes. That trnsformation as we cross the threshold from the squalls thrown at us in this life to the beatific vision and immortal life with our friends and families in the next, and see Jesus face to face.