I believe today’s Gospel may give us a glimpse into a dynamic we might all experience when events of our lives might cause us to have struggles of faith. Let’s be honest and admit that there can be moments when each of us may experience such difficulties.
On occasion, we may struggle greatly with the ordinary demands of our lives, and we may also then have doubts about God’s power, or we may have conflicts about being obedient to something to which our faith has called us to do or to believe. At times we might have found ourselves experiencing discomfort when challenged to be faithful to the Christian way of life–with all of its demands and requirements.
The events recorded in today’s Gospel occurred immediately after the disciples had experienced the great exuberance of being called by Jesus, after seeing him perform many miracles and cures, and after hearing his dynamic preaching about the “Kingdom of God” (see Mark 1:16–4:34). At that juncture in their journey, it might seem to us that the disciples would have had no reason to doubt who Jesus was, and that they would have had no question about his power to work wonders in their lives; we might think that by then the disciples should have had complete confidence that Jesus would never have disappointed them in any way.
Yet, today’s Gospel paints a very different picture of those disciples and their faith in the Lord (and/or their lack thereof). Jesus had invited them to take some prayerful rest and to set themselves apart from the vast crowds who had been following them. He said: “Let us take the boat and cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, away from the vast crowds” (cf., Mark 4:35). However when they ran into a frightening storm while in their boats, they became terrified; they cried out to Jesus with an apparent lack of confidence and faith that he would have been able to do anything to save them at that moment. It seems almost ironic to me that at the same time they had doubts, the disciples begged him to do something about the predicament in which they had found themselves. They said: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (see Mark 4:38).
We might actually find some parallels between the disciples reaction, and their lack of faith at that moment, to that of our own occasional and similar struggles (e.g., with the demands of our Christian lives, with our jobs, our relationships, our life choices, our financial responsibilities, our health, etc.). Whatever are the challenges that face us, our own faith stories might at times be narrated as follows: Jesus says to us “lets do this” and so we follow, and then we enthusiastically have confidence in Jesus and we follow him with trust, but as soon as it gets difficult we become terrified and like those disciples in the boat we call out in anguish and in doubt. Acknowledging the reality of this type of dynamic in our own lives and in our faith, we are challenged once again to admit our own doubts and weaknesses, and in spite of them to renew our faith and confidence in the Lord Jesus!
Today, we see that although the disciples did not have “perfect faith,” Jesus saved them even so. The Gospel says that he “rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Be quiet! Be still!’ and the wind ceased, and there was great calm” (see Mark 4:39). I believe that, even in spite of our own difficulties in life, and the possibility that we might even have very real doubts of faith, Jesus will always come to our aid in our moments of need. All we need to do, as did those disciples, is to cry out to him when the difficulties arise!
My friends, let us encourage one another with the message of our faith, and let us have confidence that even if we struggle and doubt him at times, Jesus will always “calm the storms” that come our way. Our God will never disappoint us!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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