Christ
commanded the wind and there was a great calm. Like the disciples in the boat
we are rightly troubled if we have forgotten him in whom you have believed. Our
anguish becomes unbearable when all that Christ suffered for us remains far
from our mind. If you don't think of Christ, he sleeps. Wake Christ; call on
your faith. Christ sleeps in us if we have forgotten his Passion. But if we
remember his Passion, then Christ awakes in us. When, with all our heart, we
have reflected over what Christ suffered, won't we bear our trials steadfastly
in our turn? And maybe with joy you will find yourself a little more like your
King through your suffering. Yes indeed, when these thoughts start to comfort
you and give you joy, then know that Christ has stood up and commanded the
wind; from this comes to pass the calm within you. -- St. Augustine
Why are you afraid?
You might say that Jesus’ question to his
disciples ‘why are you afraid’ is a bit silly. “I don’t know, Lord, maybe it’s the
howling wind, the big waves, and the fact that we are about to sink and drown
and by the way it was your idea to go out on a day like this, not ours, we know
better.’ But the problem is not just the
weather; the problem is the venue. To many ancient peoples the sea’s wild and
formless power seemed like ungodly chaos. . The sea was the place of the
absence of God. Or worse the place of malignant deities and spirits, unpredictable,
dangerous, deadly, a place like hell which devours men, a place where even
divine providence does not seem to extend its merciful presence.
In fact in the first reading this Sunday God
shows Job that he has channeled this
seemingly overpowering force, that he has wrapped the waters as one would
wrap a baby in a diaper, that he has locked up the menacing and raging waters ‘behind
bars’.
But it is not just the raging sea which is put
in its place; it is also human beings: we imagine that with the problem of
evil, the reality of suffering in hand, we can put God on trial but what
happens is we are put on trial:
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the
earth?
Who determined its measurements-- surely you
know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this."
The answer to Job’s suffering is this: ‘mind
your own business’ But if God can rule over
the forces of nature that infinitely surpass human powers, he can certainly
tame and direct human destinies as well.
In the Gospel it is this same omnipotent power and
authority which is sleeping in the stern of the boat. Happy Father’s Day because the sleep is not
indifference, as the disciples allege, but the Son is resting in the care of
the Father. The Father, who keeps watch over the life and mission of his Son, will
not allow any natural power to overpower his Son. His ‘hour was not yet come’. Even
when, at the insistence of his disciples, Jesus does command the storm to
cease, ‘be still’ he does so not to show off his power, nor because he himself
is afraid, but solely because of the disciples’ lack of faith. As will be the
case in the Garden, it is they, not he, who are sleeping. “Why are you afraid? Have
you no faith?”
The tables will be turned just as they were with
Job. “Simon, why are you sleeping? Could you not watch with me for one hour?’God
watches. Man sleeps.
It is not simply that they lack faith in this
miracle, but they will lack faith in a far greater miracle, when Jesus tames
the chaos of our sin, by the Cross. “What sort of man is this?’” A man who
commands wind and storm? Yes. But there is so much more: he destroys sin and
death.
In the Epistle St. Paul takes full account of
this complete faith. There is no sea but there is a storm. The Church at Corinth
is being ravaged by disunity, disobedience, and discord. God watches. Man
sleeps. So they miss the ultimate
marvel, the wonder which creates the Church, which animates it, sanctifies it,
the ultimate truth which must guide the Christian in all times and in all
places: Jesus ‘died for all so that
those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their
sakes died and was raised up.’ This marvel does not simply return men to the
safety of their old, mortal lives, as happened in the miracle of the storm on
the lake. Rather, if ‘if they are in Christ,’ they are a ‘new creation’ in
which the old has passed away and all is new.’ For the sake of their lack of
faith Jesus calmed the storm on the lake – so that they might begin to put
their trust in him. His death on the Cross calms a much worst storm and requires
that all who believe, however haltingly, no longer ‘live for themselves.’ Why
are we afraid? Could it be because we are asleep?
Why are you afraid?
With assistance
from Fr. von Balthasar and Fr. Knox.
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