HOMILY WEEK 03 06 – Year II
With Jesus in our Boat
(2 Samuel 12:1-17; Ps 51; Mk 4:35-41)
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Are there any storms in your life at this moment?
The readings today invite us to deepen our faith and trust in the presence of Jesus in our lives, especially during times of trial and testing.
The great windstorm in the gospel that threatened to swamp the boat the disciples were in, serves as a metaphor for the many storms that face us in our lives, taking all kinds of shapes and forms: a difficult relationship leaving you puzzled, a failing marriage, loss of employment, ill health, past trauma, financial constraints, depression, racism, discrimination, and for us all, the storm of the present weak economy and post-pandemic struggles.
In the gospel, we are told that Jesus had been teaching the people in parables all day. They had spent a day long retreat with Jesus, but now, faced with the storm on the Sea of Galilee with waves crashing into the boat and Jesus asleep in the stern, their faith was sorely tested. What happened when they woke Jesus up left them awe-struck – at his command, the wind died down and the sea suddenly became totally calm. And what Jesus was hoping for in the disciples – faith in his presence in their lives, was found to be hopelessly inadequate.
The lesson is clear – regardless of the nature of the storms in our lives, we are to place our faith and trust in Jesus, that somehow, he will turn all the negatives in our lives into something positive and good. We need to continually pray for a stronger and stronger faith in him, as that is a gift that he wants to give us.
Bob had been asked during a retreat to try to find the main sin in his life. Taking that seriously, he was shocked and dismayed to discover that he did not really trust in God’s providence, that God would be there for him in the end. So, he had surrounded himself with material things: the best computer, camera, I-pad, phone, etc. Now, with this new awareness, he felt ready to trust in Jesus more, and start to de-clutter his life and give some of his superfluous belongings away.
King David, in the first reading, was led to a new awareness of his lack of faith in God’s love for him that manifested itself in his lust, arranging a murder, and taking Uriah’s wife for himself. To his credit, King David grew in faith through that painful incident, repented from his heart, and was transformed into the only true King that Israel ever had.
I had my own experience with this gospel during a retreat before my ordination as a bishop. The first day of the retreat, I woke up with a feeling of dread, fear and panic at what I was about to enter into, and decided to pray with this passage. As I prayed, waves of dread and fear would threaten to overcome me but each time I read the words of this passage, some calm and peace would creep in, a little more each time.
For a whole hour it went, an emotional storm, waves of fear and dread being slowly washed away by a growing faith that manifested itself in stronger and stronger feelings of serenity and confidence, until finally at the end of the hour, there was only calm and peace – not a trace of that dread and fear. There had been a healing – one that left me feeling full of awe, like the disciples. That experience eventually became one of the stories in my book Drumming From Within entitled “With Jesus in our Boat.”
Whatever the storms might be in your life, these readings are an assurance that God’s love in Jesus is with you, and will see you through if you continue to pray and place your faith in that loving presence.
The Eucharist is our daily or weekly reassurance of God’s love, and an act of profound faith, as we listen to God’s Word and commune with the body and blood of Jesus who is Messiah, Saviour, and Risen Lord, master of wind and sea.
So, may this celebration deepen our faith in the presence of Jesus in our lives, whatever storms we may be facing, especially in times of trial and testing.
