Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: Job 38:1, 8-11 – From the heart of the tempest the Lord gives Job his answer.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 106(107):23-26, 28-32 – O give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 – We do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh.

Gospel: Mark 4:35-41 – Even the wind and the sea obey him.

Today we shall talk on the topic of fear and spirituality. In the Gospel, Jesus said to his disciples: “Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?” These questions were in response to the disciples’ fear when they were being tossed around in the boat by a powerful wind. Meanwhile, Jesus was with them in the same boat but was described as “sleeping”. You see, one of the greatest obstacles to spirituality is fear. Have you ever asked yourself why Jesus always tells his disciples to “Fear not!”? He knows that fear and spirituality are incompatible. No one can ever attain spiritual realm in a state of fear. If we are able to conquer fear, we shall be at peace not only with God but also with ourselves. However, the lives of very many people are guided by fear – fear of what had been, fear of what seemingly is, or fear of what might be. In the end, majority of people are born in fear, live their entire lives in fear, and die in fear. A life of fear is an insecure life, and is not worth living.

Let us stop for a moment and observe that what causes fear is not one’s object of fear but rather one’s manner of perceiving that object of fear. Think of this for a while! It is your perception of an object or a situation that causes your fear rather than the object or the situation itself. This type of distorted perception makes one run in fear for shelter even when one is under a shelter. This is also the scenario that generates fear and makes one look for protection even when one is already under the protection of God. If a child is endangered, he runs to his mother for protection. But when he is already under the protection of his mother, is there any need of running again? Certainly no. In the psychology of a child, once he is under the protection of his mother or his father, he feels safe. Curiously however, we adults run away from God in order to seek protection elsewhere. Isn’t this ridiculous? We are with God and yet, we are very afraid of cockroaches and rats.

The disciples were with Jesus in the boat, but they were afraid of the wind. The Lord of the wind was with them, yet they were afraid of the wind. Ironical, isn’t it? They were afraid because they believed that Jesus was “asleep”. How like many of us today. When we experience some difficulties, some trials, some torments, our first reaction is to think that Jesus sleeps and that he doesn’t care.  We look at the events of the world and ask ourselves why God doesn’t do anything in order to prevent such catastrophe. We then shout toward God, as though to wake him up and to ask him to act. We think that he wasn’t always attentive to our needs in his eternal providence. We shout to wake Jesus up, instead of allowing him to sleep in us.  It is not Jesus that needs to be woken; it is us that need to wake up to the reality that Jesus is with us. It is because we are asleep that we think that Jesus is sleeping. Our manner of praying portrays us as a bunch of people praying to a sleeping God who needs to be constantly woken and reminded to do his job as God. This is reminiscent of the drama that happened between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. When the challenge to know whose god will set fire on the bull offering began, Elijah was taunting the prophets of Baal to shout and pray louder because perhaps their god may be busy or travelling, or maybe he is sleeping and needed to be woken up. And true enough, the prophets of Baal prayed louder and cut themselves with swords and spears until blood flowed. Many of us today still pray and act like the prophets of Baal and believe that this is how to wake God up to listen to our prayer especially when we are faced with fear. But this manner of praying says rather that we are a sleeping bunch of worshippers who do not realize that God is Immanuel; that he is always with us and as such we need not be frightened. A story is told of a little boy who was one of the occupants of a bus driven by a rather reckless driver. The driver was driving so recklessly and dangerously that all the occupants were shouting in panic, afraid of their lives. Among the occupants was a journalist who noticed that there was a little boy inside the bus who was unconcerned about the reckless way the driver was driving. He was simply enjoying his chocolate and playing his video game. The journalist asked him: “Are you not afraid that we might crash because of this reckless driver?” The boy answered, “Nope”. And the journalist asked him again, “Why are you so confident and unafraid?” Without taking his eyes off his video game, he replied, “Because the driver is my father”. See what I mean? God is our Father, yet every little thing frightens us. Wake up and realise that Jesus is beside you.

The other part of the gospel of today talks about the agitation of the sea which threatened the disciples’ boat. Apart from being interpreted by the Fathers of the Church as the image of the Church which has witnessed all manners of turbulence throughout its long history, this section can also be interpreted as representing individual trials and tribulations that we encounter daily as Christians. Sometimes, we might think, like the disciples apparently did, that we are very good in navigation. We might try to navigate our way out of danger without God. Before the disciples called for help, it is probable that they must have tried to rescue themselves on their own without help from Jesus, who was apparently asleep. But they soon realised that no matter how good they were, they could not overcome the storm alone. We too cannot overcome the storms of life alone without God. If we always remember to “carry” Jesus along with us, we will be able to call on him for help when we are being tossed around in the waters of life. But if we “forget” Jesus and leave him behind, we will not be able to save ourselves when we are being tossed around in the murky waters of life. Jesus is always beside us to help us. Let us not forget to beckon on him. We can’t go it alone.