JESUS CALMS THE STORMS
In life, there will always be storms, however, with Christ, there is peace, calm, and tranquillity amidst storms. All we have to do is to be still and know that the Lord is in control.
Indeed, in our lives journey, there will be powerful storms, that shake us to the foundation of our being. These storms do not only affect us but also everything and everyone around us is constantly shaken by the storms of life. Yet, we need to relax because God is in control.
Sometimes, these stormy moments leave wreaking and devastating experiences in our lives, families, and institutions. These storms of life come to us in different forms and ways: personal crises, health challenges, interpersonal relationships, marital crises, emotional, and psychical breakdowns, economic crises, natural disasters, socio-political conflicts, socio-cultural cum religious strife, etc.
No matter the storms, crises, or difficulties we face in life, we need to be still and let God be God. That is, to take control of the situation. The psalmist: King David who knew many storms in his life invites us in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God”. God though Almighty is a God of stillness, with Him there is peace and blissfulness.
OUR THEME
The readings of this Sunday remind us that amidst the storms of life, whether personal, communal, or institutional God is in control of them. We are called to peace amidst a storm and peace that comes from the stillness of God´s abiding presence.
Christ is not only our mediator with the Father. The central and lovely image of God´s intervention in broken human history. He is also our peace, our refuge, and our stronghold amidst life´s crises. He is the one who calms the troubled water and stills the bubbling state of affairs in us and around us.
FIRST READING: JOB 38:1, 8–11
With several rhetorical questions, the Omnipotent and Omniscient God curbs Job’s pride with a sense of awe and stillness. The story of Job is one of the tragic stories of the Bible, which articulates the problem of evil and the suffering of the innocent.
Essentially, it corrects one of the most theological errors of the past that still lingers today. The assertion that human suffering is the result of human sins or failures.
However, the Book of Job corrects this theological error and brings us to the mystery of awe in human suffering. Evil in the world whether in the human cycle or natural disasters are not consequences of their victims’ acts. Neither, are they acts of an insensitive God against human beings.
However, the matter of ravaging storms or tempests is eminent in life. It is good to know that they are within the bounds of God´s permission. The answer to Job in the first reading of today is that humans are not playing things of God to discard at will. Rather, in the stormy sea or the dark cloud of life and nature are within the stillness of God´s control.
In a nutshell, the first reading is about how God the Father always limits our sufferings. There is no part in God’s plan, which says that our sufferings will be endless or limitless. Thus, even in the tempest rage of storms, God has a boundary for its effect on us.
The Psalmist in Psalm 139 invites us to be conscious of the choices made by God even in our mother´s womb before we were born. We are God’s choicest children and friends. With a sense of awe that leads us to declare vehemently: “I praise you, O God, for I am wonderfully made.”
SECOND READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:14-17
Technically, the concepts of storm and stillness are not directly seen but are implied in the second reading of today. St Paul who knew many stormy moments in his private life and public ministry invites us to a new life of peace in Christ Jesus. Paul centres the Christian life on the fact that Christ died for all. A death that makes us die with him through our baptism and rise to new life through his resurrection.
The central message of Paul in the reading of today is that “whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” This newness of life (that is our peace) is attained because of the stormy or violent death of Christ.
He was one of those who indirectly inflicted havoc and violence against Christ in his mystical body the Church. However, through repentance and conversion has to understand Christ as the Lord and Messiah. This experience changes his life and perspective of Christ.
CHRISTIAN LIFE IN CHRIST THROUGH BAPTISM
Hence, in Paul´s understanding, a Christian who has faith and is baptized into Christ Jesus no longer lives according to the flesh but the spirit of God who raises Christ from the dead. For St. Paul, the flesh means the fallen world which includes us- our bodies which are sickly, suffering, sinful, decaying, and dying.
Therefore, in Paul´s view, the Christian life does not pertain to the fallen world. In the sense that once a person is baptized, not only does he or she belong to the new creation. Such a person should also regard his or her fellow human beings from the vantage point of the new creation in Christ Jesus.
Now, as Christians, how do we accept our ascendance as a new creation in Christ Jesus- when we are still prone to sins, sufferings, sicknesses, and death? The answer is in Christ Jesus. It is in him, that we overcome the fallen world of sins, sufferings, sickness, and death and rise to new life.
In Christ, we attain peace, calm, and stillness from the violent situations of the flesh or fallen world where sins, sufferings, sicknesses, and death dominate us. As such, Paul’s spiritual outlook is that the Christian life is prompted and sustained by the love of God in Christ Jesus through the action of the Holy Spirit.
THE GOSPEL: MARK 4:35-41
The evangelist Mark presents us with a dramatic and vivid detail of God´s power in Christ Jesus over the storms of life. Contextually, the Lake of Galilee was notorious for its storms. Most times, these storms came out of the blue with shattering and terrifying suddenness. This is how our human life and existence are too. They are full of ravaging storms that come out of the blue and wreck us with ever-changing effects.
Even though the Gospel passage gives us a descriptive image of the sailing boats, the storm, Jesus’ reaction, and the disciples’ sense of awe. The story is much more than that in a symbolic spiritual way. It is a story of something, which happened once. It is something that still happens and which can happen to us.
Namely, in the still blissful and peaceful presence of Jesus, we can have peace even amidst the wildest storms of life. That is peace amidst a storm of life or the ravaging circumstances of life.
LIFE AMIDST STORMY FORCES
There are a lot of destructive forces or storms in life that threaten to annihilate us from existence.
Life is a voyage with a lot of storms coming at us from every angle. We navigate life or our spiritual life through the storms of life with Christ as our guide.
Yet, we can sail into and through this ravaging storm with God still present on our side to assure and calm us. God is always with us whether awake or asleep.
The disciples realized Jesus’s presence with them during and after the storm became calm. Once they knew he was there a fearless peace entered their hearts. There was peace amidst the storm.
The universal truth is that to voyage with Jesus was to voyage in peace even in the storm of life.
WE WILL PRIMARILY FOCUS ON THE FOLLOWING TAKEAWAYS FROM TODAY’S GOSPEL READING.
1. To always have Jesus in our boat (either awake/asleep); life´s voyage has a lot of storms and Christ is needed to sail through. We need to remember that Jesus is always with us in the boat of our life.
2. Not to fear during critical challenges, because Jesus will take care of us. His lovely presence is peace, calm, and courage to us.
3. To have an attitude of submission and endurance. That is to trust and call on God amidst our fears, troubles, and difficulties of life with a sense of patience.
4. With Jesus in our boat, we will surely reach the other side (accomplish our purpose on earth). Remember, he is the one who invites us to sail with him through the stormy sea on fragile boats with little or no security.
5. Equally, the gospel of today is of deep comfort to us in our Christian journey of faith amidst storms, problems, troubles, difficulties, and crises. It assures us that always and everywhere there will be peace amidst a storm of life.
6. Jesus gives us peace in the storm of sorrow. When sorrow comes, as it must come it inevitably. He tells us of the glory of the life to come. He changes the darkness of death into the sunshine of the thought of life eternal. He tells us of the love of God.
7. He gives us peace when life’s problems involve us in a tempest of doubts, tensions, and uncertainties. There come times when we do not know what to do; when we stand at some crossroads in life and do not know which way to take.
If then we turn to Jesus and say to him, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” the way will be clear.
The real tragedy of the Christian life is not that we do not know what to do, but that often we do not humbly submit to Jesus’ guidance. To ask his will and to submit to it is the way to peace at such a time.
8. He gives us peace in the storms of anxiety and insecurity. The chief enemies of peace are worries, cares, and preoccupations. We worry for ourselves or worry about the unknown future, and as well we worry about those we love.
We can turn or convert all these worries to prayer when we know and believe Christ´s presence with us as our peace amidst a storm.
In summary, we all experience different types of violent storms in our lives: physical storms, emotional storms, and spiritual storms. We face storms of sorrow, doubt, anxiety, worry, temptation, and passion. Only Jesus can still these storms. Jesus can give us real peace in the storm of sorrow. He can become our peace amidst a storm if we wake him up in the middle of our crises.
THE STORM COULD BE OVER IF WE CALL ON CHRIST!
We have been hit by many storms, which left us all devastated socially, physically, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, spiritually, and economically. There are many other storms in our lives: storms of the death of our loved ones, failed relationships, marriages, and broken families as well as institutions.
The storms of brokenness, disappointment, and abandonment from and in families, friends, and authorities. The storms of scandals in the Church, religious life, and religious communities. The storms of brutalities, of being used and abused in the name of God by so-called men and women of God.
Storms of social, cultural, moral, ethical, religious, and political decadence and corruption. As well as, the storms of climatic and environmental changes ranging from hot weather, floods, hard winters, drought, wildfire, lack of potable water, diseases, and extinction of the biosphere, etc.
All these storms can be over when like the disciple we wake Christ up with our cries and shouts of panic and desperation. One thing is certain, God: Christ is with us always and everywhere, especially at drastic or crucial moments of fear and helplessness.
The stories of Job and the disciples´ experience present us with one solid fact: WE DO NOT TELL GOD WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM BUT WE TELL OUR PROBLEM WE HAVE A BIG GOD.
FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
1. Are you in a crisis of faith, life, and existence? What are your reactions to your situation? Despair? Discourage? Disappointment? Doubts or fear?
2. Do you believe in the presence of God amidst your challenges or crises? What positive steps can you take amidst the storms in your life?
3. Do you know God is bigger and greater than the savaging and ravaging storms in your life, in your family, in your community, in your country, the Church, and the world?
4. Do you know how to still yourself before God at a crisis moment to let his will have his way in your conditions or situations?
5. What holds you back from attaining peace and calmness in your life in moments of crisis? Do you trust with affirming conviction that Christ is our peace amidst storms, crises, and difficulties of life?
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you are Lord and King of the universe and nothing came into being without you, not even the storms of life. Help us like Job or your disciples to know that the storms are nothing when you are present in our lives. May we learn to convert our worries to prayers and stillness before you and experience and take it to heart that you are always closer and accompany us in life´s journey. Amen.
