XII Sunday of the Year

LORD, DO YOU NOT CARE...?

Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41

Readings for the XII Sunday of the Year

Monty had severely handicapped limbs, the result of polio. Through dogged determination, he got a degree and a job. Then he developed problems with his sight; doctors discovered that his retinas were becoming detached. Monty found himself facing blindness and total immobility.

We can identify with Monty’s experience. There is so much turmoil and suffering in our lives. When we think things have quieted down, more turmoil erupts. We wonder how much more can we take! 

That’s probably the unasked question in the disciples’ minds in today’s gospel! 

The incident happens after a long teaching session which made “it impossible for them even to eat.” Jesus decides to cross to the other side of the lake, the only way they can leave the crowd behind. 

As soon as they embark, they face one of the sudden windstorms that often whip up the Sea of Galilee. These veteran sailors panic as the boat begins to fill up. Where is Jesus? He is oblivious to what is going on and is – Mark puts it so vividly – asleep on a cushion at the stern of the boat.

Tired after handling crowds, battling a sudden windstorm, and the master asleep! How much more can the disciples take? They cry out: “Do you not care that we are perishing?”

Let’s return to Monty! Monty grew bitter. Then he noticed what was happening around him: his co-workers carolled at Christmas and his neighbours held campaigns to raise funds; a surgeon volunteered to operate. Post-surgery, his eyes were fine. Monty said that he felt loved and cared for, and a deep sense of God’s love. He was in a storm but a storm in which he discovered God was with him.

The disciples, too, discovered that God was with them during that storm! Roused out of sleep, Jesus rebukes the wind and the sea. In commanding the sea, Jesus affirms his power over chaos and evil (in Jewish mentality, the sea is a reminder of the primitive chaos); he shows that he is Lord.

Mark’s Christian community saw this event as a sign of Jesus’ saving presence amid persecutions that threatened its existence.

There are times God seems absent or oblivious. Like the disciples, we want to cry out: “Do you not care...” We’d do well to recall the opening phrase of the First Reading: “The Lord addressed Job out of the storm.” The same Lord addressed the disciples during the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The same Lord addresses us during our storms—within and without.

During the storms in my life, do I believe that Jesus is on board with me, and can I hear him address me? 

To journey with Jesus is to journey through storms, not around them! These will disturb the peace of our Galilees but will not overcome us because the Lord is with us saying “Quiet! Be still!” to the storms… and to us. Why, then, am I still afraid?