12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 4, 35-41
There was this story of a boy who was playing on a cruise liner with his alphabet blocks. Then in a few minutes, the ship encountered a storm. And the atmosphere changed on the cruise liner from festive to horror. The rain was pouring, the ship was being rocked violently, the wind was gale-force. It became so scary that the people were actually screaming because of fright. However, when somebody saw the boy, he was just playing with his blocks and seemed to be oblivious to everything happening around him. He continued to enjoy what he was doing. This got the attention of one of the passengers, who asked, “Tom, are you not worried about what is happening? We’re in the middle of the storm and our ship might capsize, if not sink any moment now, are you not scared?” The boy replied, “Why should I be worried? The captain of this ship is my dad.”
In the gospel for today, we see Jesus saying to his disciples, “Let us go to the other side.” Jesus and his disciples left the crowd knowing that they had to move on and go to another town and continue the ministry: healing the sick, exorcising demons and more importantly preaching to the crowds.
On the way to the other side though, it was the perfect time for Jesus to take some rest. He must have had a full day attending to the needs of the crowd. Who would know how many people he healed, how many people possessed by evil spirit he treated, how many hours he spent on teaching the crowds, telling many parables and stories to be able to convey the important message about the Kingdom of God. This episode in the life of Christ only shows us that he was as human as we are. He got tired and needed some rest. And rest he did. Most probably, he slept like a baby without a care in the world.
However, things turned to custard pretty quickly. There was a big squall and huge waves were pounding their boat so that it was nearing breaking point. And these men, many of whom were seasoned fishermen who must have encountered similar storms in the past, became so frightened that they ran to Jesus for help. And most probably, that would be the most illogical thing to do. Jesus was a carpenter. Jesus may have been in a boat in the past but he would never have had the experience of some of his disciples like Peter, Andrew, James and John who were veteran fishermen. And yet, as their Master and Leader, they pinned their hopes on Jesus to do something or anything so that they may be able to survive this storm. And Jesus, upon waking up and realising what was happening around him, rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” And everything quieted down. Then it was Jesus’ turn to question his disciples. “Why are you terrified? Do you not have faith?”
How many times in our lives do we think Jesus is sleeping? How many times in our lives when we cry out to Jesus like the disciples, it seems he’s not listening or even worse not even there? I remember during the aftermath of the earthquake in Christchurch, that town was so devastated that you could see the destruction all around the city caused by the earthquake. So many buildings just collapsed and so many beautiful antique buildings never stood a chance. And not to mention the hundreds of lives that were lost because of it. The weekend after that, there were people asking, “Where is God in all these things? Has God become death and abandoned us in this time of need?” I remember making a homily during that time that sounded like this, “In a time a disaster like this, if you look at the things around you, people helping each other, people risking their safety to rescue people who got trapped in the rubble, people fundraising to help people who are in need, people accommodating victims who have nowhere to sleep and other acts of kindness. If God is not there in these people, then I don’t know where he is.”
Sometimes it is so easy to presume that God has lost control of what is happening in the world. When we watch the news, we see wars, tragedies, violence and other negative news and it’s so easy to think ‘where is God in the midst of all these things?’ I believe Jesus is asking us another question, “Where is our faith? Are you really asking for me? Or are you relying on yourselves?”
This “miracle” of Jesus shows that he is the master of creation. The wind obeys him because Jesus made them since Creation. So let us not lose faith. There might be trying and challenging times in our lives but we must know who is in control. And he will definitely come to our help if only we let him.