by Fr. Jose “Joesum” Sumampong, Jr.
June 20, 2021
12th Sunday in Ordinary Times (B)
Job 38: 1, 8-11 / Ps 107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31 /
2 Cor 5:14-17 / Mark 4:35-41
LIFE’S STORMS
Word: Jesus taught the crowd with many parables. When evening had come, he suggested to his disciples “Let us cross over to the farther shore” (Mk 4:35). And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
At the level of concrete reality, we may imagine a fine summer evening. Jesus borrows the boat of Simon Peter and slowly draws away from the beach of Capernaum.
After the burning heat of the day, comes the coolness of the evening. After the pressure of the crowds, comes the moment of intimacy, alone at sea with His small group of friends. Jesus has taken the initiative of these few moments of quietness: “Let us cross over to the farther shore” (Mk 4:35). The wind is favorable. The sail stretched by the breeze, hums gently. We hear only the light gurgling of the water as the prow of the boat splits it, and birds squeal. Jesus was in the stern, serenely slumbering on the cushion. Beside Him, Peter holds the tiller.
Here are some good comments on the text. “When evening had come”. Not only the coolness of the evening as the sun comes down, but also “the hour of darkness”, the hour of trials (Mark 14:17, John 9:4, 13:30). “…to the farther shore”. Not merely the opposite shore of the lake, but also the great passage to the “beyond”, which is the fate of every man and woman, in the evening of earthly life. For each human person, this is the great day, the “Day of God” — for which all other days are preparing us.
“It happened that a bad squall blew up. The waves were breaking over the boat and it began to ship water badly” (Mk 4:37). The waves which were cascading over the side of their craft had terrorized the apostles. Even today, the Sea of Galilee is well known for its sudden squalls rushing down from the Golan Heights. Peter the sailor was, more than any other, used to these gusts of wind which make the sail crack and the boat almost keel over.
But tempests do not assail us only when we are at sea. In all languages of the world, a tempest is “the sudden trial that comes down on a human person”. In the Bible, this theme of the tempest is often the symbol of all evil forces. Creation is imagined as the triumph of God over the darkness upon the face of the primeval waters (Genesis 1:2). In the ancient Semitic lore, the sea is the place of the “great abyss” in which reign the dragons, the great sea monsters, the Leviathan symbol of Satan (Isaiah 27:1; Psalm 74:13; Job 13: Daniel 7; Revelation 12 and 13).
“Jesus was in the stern through it all, sound asleep on a cushion” (Mk 4: 38 ). This image is used to express the theme of “God’s indifference” and of “His absence”: Arise, Lord, why are You asleep? (Psalm 44:24, 35:23, 59:6, 78:65; Isaiah 51:9-10). Yes, how true it is! During our human tempests, God seems to be asleep. The theme of “the death of God” has not been invented by modern man: it expresses a deep sense of our human condition, a feeling of weakness and fear when God does not intervene at the level of “natural causes” and gives free play to the forces of death, — when God seems to be asleep.
They wake Jesus with an accusation: “Teacher, doesn’t it matter to you that we are going to drown?” He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea: “Quiet! Be still!” The wind fell off and everything grew calm” (Mk 4:38-39).
o0o
Order: At any rate, it seems symptomatic that, in the midst of the tempest, the Apostles call Jesus “Teacher”, Let us, therefore, listen to the teaching contained in the event. The theological reading of an event does not take away its historic reality but gives it its deepest meaning.
For sure their experience is not alien to us.
o0o
Realities: 1. The old doctor had never refused a call either for rich or for poor. But now he was tired and retired.
“Have you any money?” he asked the midnight caller. “Certainly,” he replied. “Then go to the new doctor. I’m too old to get out of bed for anyone who can pay for it.” (Salt Shaker, Money Doesn’t Count)
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Realities: 2. One day the devil felt particularly gratified, for he had just come up with a real winner. He had made a mirror that had the unusual quality of badly distorting anything seen in it. The nicest face became unbelievably ugly; the nicest landscape became like cooked green leaf. When someone with a good thought smiled and looked into the mirror, the devil saw in it a grin or grimace.
The devil’s understudies delighted in their master’s success. He turned the whole world upside down with it. So then he got the idea of flying up to heaven to make fun of the angels and even God himself with that mirror. The nearer he got to heaven, the more the devil grinned. His grin reflected so horribly in the mirror that it slipped out of his hands and fell back to earth and broke into a thousand pieces.
But this caused even more trouble than before. For the mirror broke into pieces as fine as the grains of sand, and blew about all over the earth. Whenever a grain got into a person’s eye, it could not be removed; and that person thereafter always saw only the bad side, the evil in things and persons around. As Andersen implies, this habit of always seeing bad and evil and wrong is not natural, it comes from the devil. (Hans Christian Andersen, Always Seeing The Bad Side)
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Realities: 3. A lady on a trans-Atlantic flight in a jet became very upset when they hit strong turbulence. She asked the stewardess, “Are we going to crash?”
The stewardess tried to calm her down, saying, “Don’t be afraid. We’re all in the hands of God.” The lady replied, “Oh, is it that bad?” “No. It’s actually that good .. .” (Clifton Fadiman, Providence)
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Realities: 4. A Redemptorist, Fr. Denis McBride, writes: “We believe that Jesus accompanies us on our journey to God, that he is “on board” with us. Sometimes, when we see such disorder and chaos around our world, we might wonder if Jesus has chosen to sleep through disaster—even though we know that his presence is no insurance against our own fear and anxiety. To journey with Jesus is to journey through storms, not around them. The peace of our Galilees will be disturbed. But we know that the disciples of Jesus went on to face shipwreck and hardship and rejection. Ultimately, many of them came face to face with a violent death and martyrdom. What kept them going is what keeps us going: a strenuous belief that Jesus is Lord of all chaos, a stubborn faith which tells us that there is no storm that will not be stilled at last by the peace of his presence.”
In the meantime, we struggle on and hold on to our hats!
oOo
Direction: O LORD, support us all the day long of this troublous life until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over and our work is done. Then in your mercy, grant us a safe lodging and a holy rest, and peace at the last. (Prayer for God’s Continued Protection, John Henry Newman <1801-1890> Cardinal, Writer, and Educator)