“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.  For previous Green Room entries, click here.

This morning’s Gospel reading is Mark 4:35-41:

On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: “Let us cross to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” They were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

Do you not yet have faith?

Today’s readings give us an enlightening parallel between the Gospel and one of the oldest books in the Bible, Job. In the latter, a pious man suffers tremendously, losing all he has, but keeps his faith and trust in the Lord. His friends insist that Job must have greatly sinned, for all suffering must be a punishment from God, but Job refuses to testify falsely against himself. Still the suffering continues, until Job demands that the Lord explain Himself and give Job the chance to challenge his suffering in a trial. The Lord speaks to Job “out of the storm,” and asks Job, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? … Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” God continues (Job 38:1, 8-11):

Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands? When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door, and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!

In Mark’s Gospel today, the storm envelops Jesus and the disciples, frightening them. These are experienced fishermen who would have had plenty of experience with stormy weather in Galilee. A simple thunderstorm would not have led them to panic. They knew how to navigate through difficult weather, and when and how to return to shore when it arose. For them to assume that all was lost, the “violent squall” would have been extraordinary, unprecedented in their long experience — much like the suffering of Job, but of course in a much more sudden and brief way.

The first parallel that becomes apparent is how the power of Jesus manifests itself in this reading. In Job, the Lord rebukes his faithful yet suffering servant by reminding Job that He stills the waves and bounds the seas. In Mark, Jesus actually stills the waves and the weather through His command; Jesus’ explicit command to “the sea” is “Be still!”

The next parallel comes from Job and the disciples. Both are pushed to the edge of faith not by a lack of desire but from extraordinarily adverse circumstances. In both cases, they turn to the Lord for assistance and intervention. In both cases, they get rebuked by the Lord for weak faith in the Lord’s plans for them, but in both cases the Lord rewards what faith they do have. And in both cases, the plans for salvation continue, and Satan is confounded.

Both stories remind us that suffering and danger, no matter how extended or sudden, provide us with opportunities to trust in God and seek His comfort. The scriptures acknowledge that evil and horrible acts and calamities occur in this life, and that can rattle the faith of the Lord’s disciples. No one who experiences inexplicable evil and horrible tragedy, either personally or through witness, comes through it without wondering why God allows such events to occur. Even Job, who watches his children and servants die and still says, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return: the Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord,” eventually starts demanding answers from God.

We have witnessed such an event this week, at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The Christians of that historic church opened their doors to the stranger, as the Bible instructs, and gathered in prayer and worship with him. In the middle of this, the stranger brutally murdered nine of these good Christians, motivated by hate and racism, even though the Lord promised that when two or more of us are gathered in His name, He will be with us.

Do you not yet have faith?

No one would have blamed the families of these massacred victims to demand Old Testament justice for their loss. Many of us felt the same way when we heard about the murders. But instead, an extraordinary thing happened. The families went into court and expressed forgiveness for the mass murderer — not that he should be excused from justice in this life, but in the hope that he will open his heart to the Lord for the next. As a Christian, the seven minutes of the video at the link may be the most humbling and instructive I’ve ever experienced. With every reason to return hate for hate, the community of Emanuel AME Church instead rode through the storm to express the love of Christ to the world, even as they suffered through their own agonizing pain.

In Mark, Jesus asks the disciples to get into the boat for one reason: “Let us cross to the other side.” Our journey in this life is to cross to the other side with Christ in our hearts. When storms arise, as they will in this fallen world, we ask Christ to guide us through them, and keep our faith that we will eventually get to the other side. We do not know the will of God, nor will we understand the inexplicable in this lifetime. All we can do is trust in God and love each other, which is the faith we must have — and must share.

Please pray today for our good Christian brothers and sisters of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, especially the families of the victims who had so much taken away, and then gave so much back to us. Pray for the victims, and pray for the entire community. And if they can be praying for the murderer, then we should pray for him as well — not to excuse the horrendous crime he committed, but in the hope that he can be saved on the other side.

Do you not yet have faith? With your help, Lord, we will come through this storm and others to our home.

The front page image is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt (1633), which was stolen in 1990 in the biggest art theft in US history. It has not yet been recovered.