«THE WIND WHISTLES AND THE STORM RAGES … » AND MEANWHILE JESUS ​​WAS SLEEPING

«Because you are afraid? Have you no faith?». For those who believe, there is nothing to fear, because everything works for the good, if you love God; even the storms of life. Only, fear often has the upper hand and when this happens we all discover ourselves as disheartened people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I knew a good priest that when someone, on the occasion of a death, he asked him for a phrase to carve on a tombstone or put on a memory card, he always suggested this one from today's Gospel: «Evening came, Jesus said: Let's move on to the other shore". Many remember the Pope's meditation on this evangelical passage during the pandemic, the 27 March 2020, in a deserted Rome and St. Peter's Square. Or the words of the predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to Auschwitz:

«Where was God in those days? Because He was silent? How could he tolerate this excess of destruction, this triumph of evil?».

There are indeed moments in life of people, or history, in which God seems absent and careless about men. This is what happens in today's Gospel, When the disciples, scared by the storm, they said to Jesus: «Maestro, do we not care?» (MC 4,38). Here is the passage from this Sunday's Gospel:

«On that day, evening came, Jesus told his disciples: “Let's move on to the other shore”. E, the crowd dismissed, they took him with them, as it was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. There was a great windstorm and the waves were rolling into the boat, so much so that it was now full. He was standing in the stern, on the pillow, and slept. Then they woke him up and told him: “Maestro, you don't care that we are lost?”. He woke up, he threatened the wind and said to the sea: "Talked, take it easy!”. The wind stopped and there was a great calm. Then he said to them,: “Because you are afraid? Have you no faith?”. And they were filled with great fear and spoke to one another: “Who then is this?, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”» (MC 4,35-41).

The evangelical episode It comes at the end of a day that Jesus dedicated to preaching, while sitting on a boat just off the shore (cf.. MC 4,1-34). But when evening comes he decides to cross to the other shore of the Sea of ​​Galilee, leaving the land of Israel, to go towards a region inhabited by pagans, I GERASE. He probably wants to announce God's mercy to the people too, he wants to fight Satan and take away his ground even in that foreign and unholy land. This is the reason that moves Jesus. Many commentators have seen the similarities between this episode and the story of Jonah: called by God to go to Nineveh, city ​​symbol of the pagan people, he runs away and walks in the opposite direction (Gion 1,1-3). Jesus, instead, sent by God, he goes among the pagans. He therefore appears as a Jonah in reverse: not reluctant, but missionary towards the pagans and obedient to God. Anyhow, Jonah and Jesus are two missionaries of divine mercy, and both preach it at great cost: descending into the vortex of the waters and facing the storm (Gion 2,1-11), since only by crossing it can evil be overcome. And Jesus will say that only the sign of Jonah will be given to his generation (cf.. Mt 12,39-41; 16,4; LC 11,29-32), since the pagans were converted by listening to him. But in Him there is also "more than Jonah" (Mt 12,41), thus anticipating that after his descent into the dark and deep waters of death he would be resurrected to live forever.

The disciples, so, they begin the crossing of the lake, «taking Jesus with him». This is a strange expression, because it is usually Jesus who takes the disciples with him (cf.. MC 9,2; 10,32; 14,33). But from what we said before, it is possible that in the background there is also the situation of a Christian community to which Mark is addressing, perhaps the church of Rome itself, the small Christian community in the capital of the empire, who fears the storm and remains held back by fear, so much so as to prevent those Christians from missions to the pagans. Thus Mark invites them not to fear the missionary outing, he encourages them to understand the trials that await them as necessary; trials and persecutions in which Jesus, the Living, he doesn't sleep: "Truly I say to you: there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, that he doesn't already receive now, in this time, a hundred times as much in homes and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions, and eternal life in the time to come" (MC 10, 29-30).

This is also how Jesus' sleep can be understood. We are aware that his day of preaching was long and probably tiring so much so that he felt the need to rest and fell asleep. This intention is frustrated by the abrupt awakening on the part of the disciples, not very graceful in the Marcian version, because in the meantime a storm had arisen which, by stirring up the waves that poured into the boat, risked drowning them. Plus it's evening, the hour of darkness that inspires fear. And then there is the sea which in the Bible represents the great enemy, the kingdom of the great abyss (cf.. Shall 107,23-27); only God had defeated him when he brought his people out of Egypt (cf.. Is 14,15-31).

«Maestro, You don't care that we are lost?». This way of expressing himself is already eloquent: they call him master (chucky), with blunt words they contest his inertia and his sleeping. Words that in Matthew's version will become a prayer: "Man (Kýrios) salvation, we are lost!» (Mt 8,25); and in Luca's a call: «Maestro, maestro (epistées), we are lost!» (LC 8,24).

Even of God, it may seem strange, in the Bible it is said that he sleeps: «Wake up, why are you sleeping, man? Wake up, Don't reject us forever" (Shall 44,24), are the words of the psalmist, when he finds himself in suffering and trial. Isaiah also cries out to the Lord «Wake up, wake up, coated with strength, O arm of the Lord. Wake up like in the days of old, as among past generations" (Is 51,9). How is it possible that God sleeps?

There is an ancient saying of philosophers came down to us through the formulation of Erasmus of Rotterdam: Naufragium done, you sailed well, I was shipwrecked, but I sailed well. It reminds us that the crisis, in the form of a storm, reaches anyone, any navigator going through life; and can seize unexpectedly and surprise, sometimes there is no way around it.

Returning for a moment toand similarities but also to the disparities between the evangelical episode and the story of Jonah, we notice that the hesitant prophet does not care about the inhabitants of Nineveh. Jesus, on the contrary, with a miracle he responds to the heartfelt words of the disciples: «You don't care that we die?». He cries out to the sea and saves them. There is a beautiful comment, very deep, to this evangelical episode by Saint Athanasius: «They awakened the Word, who was on the boat with them, and immediately the sea calmed down" (Letter 19.6). The world was created with the Word: «God said: «the waters that are under the sky, let them gather in one place and let the dryness appear" (Gen 1,9), and now Jesus with his word recomposes that balance between the sea and the land. He repeats the miracle narrated in the psalm: «You have divided the sea with power, you crushed the heads of the dragons on the waters" (Shall 74,13). «They awakened the Word», the one they had been hearing all day and now, in the dark hour, she seems dozing and silent. But the word of Jesus is an active power, we heard it in last Sunday's Gospel: 'Dorma o vegli, at night or during the day, the seed germinates and grows". God cares about us.

The scene ends with Jesus' invitation to faith: «Because you are afraid? Have you no faith?». For those who believe, there is nothing to fear, because everything works for the good, if you love God; even the storms of life (RM 8,28). Only, fear often has the upper hand and when this happens we all discover ourselves as disheartened people. But amazement prevails over the danger that has been escaped and the disciples ask themselves who Jesus is. The words he has said so far in the gospel of Mark, the miracles he performed by healing and freeing the possessed, I am nothing compared to such a great miracle involving nature, creation itself. We'll have to wait, But, the end of the Gospel to know who Jesus is. But we also know by now that He is the risen and glorious Christ who speaks to us through the Gospel. Why then fear? Saint Augustine wrote:

«If there is faith in us, Christ is in us […] The presence of Christ in your heart is linked to the faith you have in him. This is the meaning of his sleeping in the boat: the disciples being in danger, now on the verge of sinking, they approached him and woke him up. Christ arose, he commanded the winds and the waves, and there was great calm. E’ what happens inside you: while you browse, as you cross the stormy and dangerous sea of ​​this life, the winds penetrate you; the winds blow, the waves rise and rock the boat. Which winds? You received an insult and you became angry; the insult is the wind, anger is the wave; you are in danger because you are about to react, you are about to return injury for injury and the boat is about to sink. Awaken Christ who sleeps… Awaken Christ who sleeps in the boat is, so, shake faith..." (St. Augustine, Commentary on the Gospel of John, 49/19).

It is then a question of reawakening that faith which allows us to make the words of the psalmist our own: «The Lord is my light and my salvation, who will I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life, who will I be afraid of??» (Shall 27,1); not to succumb to fear: «In the hour of fear I trust in you» (Shall 56,4).

«In danger I cried out to the Lord: he answered me, the Sir, and saved me. The Lord is for me, I'm not afraid: what can a man do to me? The Lord is for me, he is my help, and I will look down on my enemies" (Shall 118, 5-7); not to fear any evil: «Even if I go through a dark valley, I fear no evil, because you are with me" (Shall 23,4).

From the Hermitage, 23 June 2024

 

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