Why are you Afraid?

Today’s Gospel is the last story of a parable-full chapter from Mark. Seeds falling on various types of ground, a lamp being lighted and put on a post, a little mustard seed’s growing into a tall bush: these are little indicators of what the “kingdom of God” is about. These parables are meant for those who can hear them and live them to be strengthened for the living.

Our Gospel pictures a boat with Jesus in the back sleeping and a huge storm’s arising. The “faithful” or are they, wake Jesus Who calms the winds and waves and their fears. He then asks them about whether they have yet attained faith in Him and His faithfulness to them.

From the early days of Jesus, He was causing waves. Because of Him, Mary and Joseph had to flee with Him into Egypt. Jesus made trouble with His hearers as He spoke of the new ways of relating with God and with life. He bothered the political leaders by confronting Roman authority. He was always asking His listeners to choose one way or an other, putting them in conflict with themselves and with others, including family members.

Jesus once said that He came into this world to bring about division not satisfaction. Though this Gospel is centered on the conflict between believers and those opposed to believing, it is also a picture of our own divisions and or choices we make, because of our invitations to follow Him. Once we let Him in our personal boat, there are personal storms within ourselves, as we have seen with Job. Staying faithful to Him and His ways is an up and down, wave-like undulation. At times we delight in our being charitable, generous, forgiving, and even suffering. At other times, the storm is resolved by our storming out of conflicts, resentfully retracting ourselves from assisting others, and or, jumping ship and swimming away from the whole situation.

Jesus did not shame or walk off out of the boat and across the waters, shaking the spray off His feet in disgust. He seemed to them to be sleeping and inattentive to their struggles. He asked them simply about the source of their being terrified. The simple answer is that they were a human group fearful of losing everything, like Job, and especially their lives. This is healthy, this fearfulness and faith does not take away our human fears immediately. Prayer does not resolve our fears, but our fears can become our prayer.

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Larry Gillick, Jr.