Today's readings: Job 38, 1. 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5, 14-17; Mark 4, 35-41.
The Lord's response to Job "from the heart of the tempest" is not a satisfactory explanation and may indeed be no response at all to the searching mind. Faith or lack of it appears in significant moments of our existence. How can we re-propose in a way that makes sense, the reason for our hope in the midst of all turmoils of life?
The discipleship journey in today's Gospel inaugurates a particular phase in Mark and will take us deep into the storms of history. But it is there, not in the safe confines of religion, that we encounter Jesus. Peter's boat has sought protection and security in the past, even at the cost of prophecy. As believers, what are we afraid of? There is reason for fear. But it needs to be counterbalanced by the reason for hope.
The sea seems to have been a place of revelation of Jesus' power in several Gospel stories. In today's instance, despite the disciples being experienced seafarers, it is encouraging that not even they were immune to fear in a storm. Fear is the central emotion in this story. It goes through several changes, emerging as wonder as well as hesitation at the power they experience.
At times, our impression - and for some it is more than just a perception - is that the Lord hardly ever answers or intervenes when stormy weather hits us in life. The 'God is dead' theology was partly born of a culture that maintained that we cannot be true to ourselves if we believe in a God who is distant from our daily affairs.
Seeing and judging reality only from our side, or from our perspective, may give a partial reading. Metaphorically, as Jesus did with his disciples, we need to "cross over to the other side". In Mark, the boat journeys across the Sea of Galilee have great symbolic significance. In this crossing over to the other side there is something deeper to just crossing a sea.
The storm is the ancient Hebrew symbol of opposition and chaos. The little boat is the ancient Christian symbol of the Church. The disciples panicking while Jesus sleeps is the stereotype image of so many situations in which we are terrified by what threatens us.
But we can look at this Gospel story from another standpoint. Perhaps it's not the Lord who is asleep. It may be the case that we are today asleep to what is happening around us. What has been termed as 'psychic numbing' has robbed us of our ability to be horrified, leaving us in a crisis of responsibility where anything goes. We seem to be asleep and deaf to the loud cries for justice, for solidarity, for honesty, for all sorts of virtue manifestly lacking in the social fabric of our society.
There are situations which call for clear and bold choices from us all. At a moment of general crisis and confusion where ideals are concerned, we may continue to invoke the rhetoric of solidarity, but we seem to be unable to exercise political imagination. Politics enters its ruts and no longer responds to the real hurts of people, particularly of those mostly in need.
People seem to be forever trying either to control history or to escape from it. In this context, as believers, we cannot afford to escape from history and find some sort of false safety within the confines of religion. A false religion won't help when storms break upon us and when we are faced with the stereotype question: "Where is Jesus in all of this?"
Coming to terms with fear, as the disciples did, can change it into wonder and even in the confidence of faith.