William Barclay, the famed Scottish New Testament scholar, writes that the miracle of the calming of the storm in Mark 4: 35-41 is a message of hope to believers that “to travel with Jesus is to travel in peace even in the storm.” The storms you face, Barclay points out, might be the storm of sorrow when you are dealing with a personal loss—the loss of health, the loss of a loved one, or a breakdown in relationship. During this pandemic, we all have known what it means to suffer losses; some greater, some less, but we all have known and continue to experience different losses in these troubling times.
Maybe you are going through a terrible storm in your family life at this time or in your workplace. Maybe in your parish ministry or at your club someone stormed out from your office or from a meeting.
Many of us are going through a very difficult time and facing serious challenges and problems. Maybe you are filled with the storm of “doubt, tension, anxiety, and uncertainty” about your faith, your health, your finances, and your children. Perhaps you stand “at the crossroads of life and do not know which way to take.”
There are many of us who are traveling this path of life very scared because of a wounded and sad past or the insecurity we find in many places. There is some paranoia that can imprison many of us because of the violence in our world. We are often beset by the “chief enemy” of inner peace and serenity of heart called worry. We worry about our loved ones, about our families, our world, our countries, our health, and about our future.
The message of this Sunday’s Gospel is that when we invite Jesus into any situation, he is able to calm the storms; when in faith we ask the Lord to take control of that complex or knotty problem, he is able to bring calm and resolution. This is why I invite you to turn to the Lord in prayer like the disciples who felt that there were perishing as their boat was caught in a storm. The Lord can grant you the help you need and the wisdom, strength, grace, and victory over the storms of life.
The Gospel of Mark tells us through the words of Jesus and his miracles that Jesus is the Son of God. It invites us to trust that Jesus has divine authority and power to respond adequately to all our human situations, complexities, and challenges. This divine authority is affirmed by the disciples as the Gospel recounts: “They were filled with awe and said, ‘who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him?’” The wind and the sea obey him because he has divine authority as the Lord of the universe. The God who spoke the words of faith to Job out of the storm in the First reading reminding him not to despair because God is in control, for it is God who made the world, the seas, nature, humans, and all things and nothing is outside God’s authority and control. Even though Job was at that time surrounded by tragedies, losses, and distressful and painful news, he continued to trust the Lord because as he said: “I know that my Redeemer liveth”
The Gospel of Mark also is a manual for Christian discipleship because it teaches us also how to be faithful followers and disciples (learners) at the feet of Jesus and trusting in divine providence. Being a disciple of the Lord means that we put our faith and fate in God’s hand. Amidst the storms that you face today, Jesus is posing to you the same question he posed to his frightened disciples: “Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?” Why do you think that the Lord is not with you or that the Lord is asleep and does not care about you?
I pray that the Lord may calm the storms in your life today. I pray that in your times of anxieties and worries that you remember the story of this miracle and be inspired to trust that God is not silent, asleep, or unconcerned about what you are going through. In this time of great uncertainty in the world, may you not lose hope or despair because God is closer to you than you can ever imagine. Jesus is your ever-present companion in this journey of life.
The boat in this miracle is indeed the symbol of the fragile world in which we live—a world shaken by many storms that frighten us all. This fragile world was represented in Genesis with the symbol of Noah’s Arc through which God preserved the remnants of the old order and through which God rebuilt a new humanity and a new creation.
In the new dispensation, Jesus came to heal creation and restore what is broken. This new creation represented by this boat faces a heavy storm of sin and evil that threaten God’s beautiful earth, the Church and all of us. May we dare to believe that God is with us and inhabits every space of this earth, our common home. Yes, the Lord travels with us and has the power, authority and desire to help us by calming the tempest and bringing us to safety. We may not be able to determine how God will do this for us in this pandemic, but we put our trust in God as we journey into the future which God alone knows.
May you travel along this path of life with hope in the certainty that there is no storm that you face in life which with Jesus you cannot handle. May you find peace and freedom as you commit your life to the Savior, and give thanks to God as the Psalmist says for the wonders that God will continue to do in your life, Amen.
© Stan Chu Ilo
