聖馬爾谷福音 4:35-41
This says something about the sort of knowledge we are talking about when we speak of knowing who Jesus is. Think of what it means for you to know someone else – your husband or wife, your parents of children, your friends. Of course you know them, but you keep getting to know them as you live with them. We don’t know people the way we know hard facts – say, the way we know today is Sunday. To know who Jesus is takes a life-time of encounter. We don’t need proofs to know him.
The scene on the boat with Jesus asleep if an important moment for the disciples as they come to know Jesus. It looks a simple scene: a storm blows up, the boat is being tossed about, waves are breaking over it and it is taking in water. Those in the boat are busy, trying to keep control of it and get back to land, all the time bucketing out the water. They are afraid: they could perish! The strange thing is that through it all Jesus is asleep. Perhaps he was exhausted from the day’s activities.
As the story unfolds we learn that there is more going on than at first meets the eye. Those in the boat wake Jesus up, and he commands the wind and the sea – and they obey! We realise that this event is a revelation for the disciples, and also for us. We were prepared for it by the first reading from the Book of Job, where God addresses Job directly and declares that God alone has power over creation. We can also recall the accounts of creation where God creates order out of chaos. In the gospel scene order has been created out of chaos. Jesus has acted like God, as lord of creation. The disciples ask the only question that they can ask, “Who is this?” We’re not told the answer, but it is obvious.
Jesus’ own words here are important. His first question to the disciples is to ask them why they are afraid. When you think about it, it doesn’t seem a fair question to ask. Of course they would be frightened if their boat was filling with water and they were struggling to get to land. But Jesus goes on to ask a second question, about their lack of faith. In fact, he is really responding to their question, “Do you not care?” His response showed them that he does care. The point of the story is that God does care; that God brings order out of chaos.
I’m sure that the disciples often asked the question, “Do you not care?” It is a question that people of faith have always asked and continue to ask of God. It can take various forms such as: “Why did this happen to me?”, or “Has God abandoned us?”, or even “What did we do wrong for God to punish us like this?” When we ask these questions we shouldn’t forget that Jesus himself asked the same question of his Father as he waited in the Garden before his passion and death.
Jesus responds to the disciples’ question about caring by first commanding the wind and the sea, but then he puts a question to them, “How is it that you have no faith?” I think there is a suggestion here that the two questions – “Do you not care?” and “How is it that you have no faith?” – are connected. We can only sincerely ask the question, “Do you not care?” if we have faith. But just as importantly, the answer to the question can only be received if we have faith. The answer to the question is received in coming to know Jesus. The initial encounter with Jesus can be a pleasing experience of his love and compassion. Our first knowledge of him can be as the God who saves. The psalms use the expression, “my rescuer and my rock”. But the more we get to know him, the more we meet someone who was rejected, who suffered, who was put to death and who rose to new life. Suddenly, “my rescuer and my rock” looks very different. The relationship with Jesus becomes more complex. Rather than being “Mr Fix-it” he becomes the one who stands in solidarity with us, because he has asked the same question, “Do you not care?”
This is probably a far more realistic and mature picture of Jesus. But like the knowledge we have of any person, we come to know him not because we are told something about him, but because we have lived with him, asked the questions and received answers – and not always the answers we wanted to hear. Today’s gospel is offered to us as an encouragement in our own journey of faith, especially in moments of fear or doubt.
Fr. Gerard Kelly
