In times of trial, faith assures us of God’s unconditional love

12th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)   

“Who can this be that the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41).  The disciples’ question highlights their unbounded amazement at Jesus and the miracles he worked. This Sunday’s Gospel presents the great miracle of Jesus calming of the sea, demonstrating his authority even over the powerful forces of nature. St. Mark also uses this Gospel to shore up the faith of the early Christian community during their time of trials.

Our first reading from the Book of Job prepares us to recognize the greatness of Jesus’ miracle. Having endured the questioning of Job and the hapless theories of his friends, the Lord God thunders forth a series of questions designed to emphasize his divine grandeur and Job’s human lowliness. The Lord said, “Who shut within doors the sea . . . and said, thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled?” (Job 38:8,11). In this particular section of the Book of Job, God stresses his own power over creation – only God can calm the raging sea.

St. Mark sets this Gospel in the evening just as Jesus and his disciples decide to cross the Sea of Galilee. Ringed by mountains, Galilee is subject to sudden, intense storms. One such storm broke during this crossing. This storm must have been especially violent as it aroused such great fear among these followers, many of whom were fishermen by trade. As the waves buffeted them and the boat filled with water, the disciples panicked (in the words of Psalm 107, “their hearts melted away in their plight”) and ran to Jesus who was sleeping in the stern. Once aroused, Jesus immediately commanded the wind and the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” (Mark 4:39). In doing so, Jesus fulfilled the words of the psalmist, “They cried to the Lord in their distress . . . the Lord hushed the storm to a gentle breeze and the billows of the sea were stilled” (Psalm 107:28).

The people of Jesus’ day saw the raging sea as a sign of demonic activity. In Jesus’ ordering the sea to be calm, St. Mark uses the same Greek word that Jesus used in Mark 1:25 when he expelled the demon from the man at Capernaum. This particular word signifies not only a rebuke, but in the extra-biblical literature of the day was also used to indicate a spell cast upon a demon rendering him unable to harm others. In any case, this miracle clearly stands out as a sign of Jesus’ power over the forces of evil – in nature and otherwise.

In the midst of the storm, the fearful disciples confront Jesus, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). This is basically the same question Job had been asking the Lord prior to the incident recalled in our first reading– why didn’t the Lord seem to be more active in relieving the suffering of his people. Both God the Father in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New answer their interrogators with a question. Jesus chastises the disciples, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” (Mark 4:40). Jesus’ tone belies his disappointment with his followers – after all the time he had already spent with them, and after all the signs he had given them, their faith in him was still pretty weak. This ongoing failure of the disciples to understand Jesus and his mission is a basic theme of St. Mark’s Gospel.

St. Mark uses both the terror of these disciples and the fact of Jesus’ coming to their rescue as teaching examples. Writing for the early Christian community, St. Mark is encouraging them to remain stalwart in their faith despite whatever trials they might face. St. Mark emphasizes that God’s plan might not always be evident to human eyes, but that, in the end, God’s saving work will always triumph over the forces which seek to devastate his people. This Gospel serves as a lesson on Christian discipleship in times of difficulty. The true disciple, both in St. Mark’s era and in our own, is cautioned to remain firm in his or her faith in Jesus, lest they too become the object of the stinging rebuke, “Do you not yet have faith?” For it is this faith that assures us that no matter what storms we might face, and storms are often part of the Christian landscape, there is no force in heaven or on earth that can sweep us away from God’s unconditional love and protecting might.

Msgr. Fell is a Scripture scholar and director, diocesan Office for Priest Personnel.