“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Piety
"Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would
not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who
had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man's ewe lamb and made a meal of it
for his visitor," [said Nathan].
David grew very angry with that man and said to him: "As the LORD
lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb
fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity." 2 Samuel
12:4-6
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?" Mark 4:37-38
Study
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
In hindsight benefitting from more than two millennia, we
know that is the wrong question. Of course, Jesus cares that we are
perishing. Why else would his Father
send him out of Paradise to this rock?
However, the disciples do not realize that they are at risk
of “perishing” NOT from the storm or the seas, but from their sin, lack of
faith, and inaction. St. Mark depicts Jesus as “asleep on a cushion,” but the
real people who are asleep on a cushion are the disciples and us.
In reaction, Jesus commanded the seas to be still. However,
the men in the boat were still agitated. Although the storm no longer was cause
for concern, they were still concerned and disturbed trying to rationalize who
this man among them was that he exerted such power over nature.
Like David, rather than judging the rich man, Nathan implies
that David should judge himself by the same standards with which he judges
others. Look inward David, at your adultery. Look inward, disciples, at your indifference.
Jesus can conquer demons far better than we can. Jesus conquers
diseases (like leprosy and the coronavirus). Jesus defeats the natural forces
of the earth (like earthquakes in Puerto Rico and wildfires in Australia and
volcanoes in the Philippines). As we saw
earlier in this liturgical year, Jesus controlled the demons with just a few
words (“Quiet! Come out of him!”) Today Jesus rebukes the wind and subdue the
sea the same way with only a few words (“Quiet! Be still!”). Yet those closest
to Jesus can not seem to add 2 + 2 and conclude what the demons seem to know. This special person is the Messiah.
The real issue today is NOT that Jesus does not care if we
perish. The real problem is Jesus
challenging our faith. "Why are
you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" (Mark 4:40)
Even great faith is not enough unless proper action springs
from that faith. We see in David, a man of great faith who knows how to mete
out justice among his people when looking outwardly and facing the dishonest
shepherd. However, despite that faith, David continues to act selfishly and pursue
his desires. He asks for forgiveness. However, David still must pay the price
for his misdeeds.
Action
Rather than looking outwardly for Jesus to save us from the
turbulence in our
We never know what the next hour or the next day or the next
week have in store. Last Sunday, the
former pro basketball player Kobe Bryant woke up and went to Mass just like any
other Sunday. He heard the First
Reading: “The people who walked in
darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a
light has shone.” He recited the Psalm with the congregation: “The Lord is my
light and my salvation.” He heard that “Christ did not send [him] to baptize
but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence so that
the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.”
The Liturgy of the Word culminated with the call to “Come
after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once, they left their nets
and followed him.
Just a few hours later, Kobe walked onto a Sikorsky
helicopter with his thirteen-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people,
not knowing that it would crash into the side of a hill just a few minutes
later. He did not know that in minutes he would forever leave the nets of the
basketball courts behind him.
Are we asleep on our cushions? Why are we terrified?
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