Mark 4:35-41

Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19

Luke 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75

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?”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I believe that Jesus is your Son and that you have sent him into the world to save us from sin and death. I believe that he will come again in glory at the end of time to judge the living and the dead.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Jesus’ Authority: In its first four chapters, the Gospel of Mark has narrated Jesus’ anointing in the Jordan and testing in the desert, Jesus’ mighty works of healing and exorcism, the opposition to Jesus’ works and teaching, the plot of the Pharisees to kill Jesus, Jesus’ appointment of new leadership for Israel, the establishment of the new family of God, and Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God that he has come to establish. Mark now tells us four stories about Jesus’ divine authority. Jesus, Mark will show us, has authority over nature (Mark 4:35-41), over demons (Mark 5:1-20), over disease (Mark 5:25-34), and over death (Mark 5:35-43). In this way, Jesus prepares his apostles for their mission and readies them to share in his authority and power.

2. Asleep in the Boat: The story of Jesus calming the sea of Galilee recalls the story of Jonah. Jonah was trying to flee the command of the Lord to preach repentance to the city of Nineveh, the sworn enemy of Israel. He was asleep in a boat headed to Tarshish when a storm threatened to sink the boat (Jonah 1:4-6). The sailors calmed the storm by throwing Jonah overboard. Jonah died, was swallowed by a fish, and three days later was restored to life on the seashore. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is asleep in the boat. Jesus calms the raging sea with a word of divine power and authority. But there is another sea, the sea of sin and death, that he will calm through his death and his resurrection on the third day. Jesus invites us to contemplate the sign of Jonah to understand his own identity. Just as Jonah was revived on the third day, Jesus will be resurrected to new life on the third day. And just as Jonah was sent to the Gentile city of Nineveh and the Ninevites repented from sin and worshipped God, so the disciples of Jesus will be sent out into the world of the Gentiles to preach the Gospel of salvation and bring about repentance from sin and faith in the one, true God.

3. The Definition of Faith: In the First Reading, the Letter to the Hebrews moves from a meditation on the mercy and faithfulness of Jesus, our eternal high priest, to an invitation to us to be people filled with faith. The letter mediates on the great figures of the Old Testament who manifested deep faith and trust in the Lord. Faith is not a fleeting sentiment or merely a one-time mental act. Faith is the realization, the substance, of what we hope for, and the evidence, the assurance, of things not seen. Faith makes what we are promised in the future – the eternal vision of God and a true share in divine life – real in the present. “Those who live by faith are so convinced of God’s truthfulness that they stake their whole lives on his promise, showing that these promises are real. Thus, in a sense, faith makes future realities present and unseen realities visible” (Healy, Hebrews, 227). The story of Abraham narrates the story of a man who believed but also struggled to believe. He believed that God would grant him numerous descendants and even that God would restore his son Isaac to life if he offered him up in sacrifice. The many promises made by the Lord to Abraham have all come to fulfillment. We, through faith and Baptism, are all spiritual descendants of Abraham. He was descendants as “numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore” (Hebrews 11:12).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I believe, but help my unbelief. I know that you are with me always, in the boat of my life. No matter the waves and wind that threaten me, you are there ready to calm them and bring me to safe harbor.

Living the Word of God: How is my faith and trust in the Lord? Do I identify with Abraham, who believed but also struggled to believe? Looking back over my life, what are the highs and lows of my faith journey?