A Reflection for Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
Imagine you were in the boat that night, the night Mark recounts in today’s Gospel. You’d spent the day with Jesus, this enigmatic parable-teller, a long day that had made your head spin with stories and explanations and clamoring crowds. You had left everything behind when he had chosen you as a disciple. But you still weren’t sure exactly what he’d chosen you for.
Or imagine yourself in the person of Jesus that night. You’ve found boats to be vessels of safety, affording you distance from the crowds who wanted every last molecule of your attention, your healing, your very being. You were finally asleep on a cushion in the stern, relaxed, exhausted, maybe dreaming.
And then the wind comes up, taking over, filling the boat with waves of seawater, instilling fear.
We know a bit about the wind, don’t we? We’ve seen some terrifying winds lately. The hot Santa Anas brought hellfire to southern California, the flames consuming and vaporizing everything in their path: houses, trees, pets, people. Such a wind commands respect. We may harness the wind as an ecological source of power, but we understand that the winds at crazily high miles per hour will always have the last word.
Except with Jesus.
Not only do Jesus’ words make the wind stop howling, he stills the awesome might of the sea. The violent squall is instantly calmed. If you’re in that boat with Jesus, your terror at facing your imminent death turns to something else, a weirder kind of fear tinged with wonder. “Who then is this whom even the wind and sea obey?” you say to your fellow disciples. Who is this guy? You’re dumbfounded. You’re thunderstruck. Yet you stay with him. He is a magnet to your soul.
It’s hard for us to imagine being in the boat with Jesus, those of us who have said our prayers since we could talk and have always believed that Jesus is the Son of God. We may have had all kinds of doubts in our faith life, but we’ve never doubted that. What would it be like to get to know Jesus before that baked-in belief? What would we have said to our companions that night in the boat?
Put yourself there. Rub your amazed eyes. Take a jagged breath. Stand on your unsteady legs. Feel your heart heave and grow. “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” Jesus asks you. Now reply.
