Saturday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time, January 29, 2022

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: “Let us cross to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. 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?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” They were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

If we go back to the beginning of St. Mark’s Gospel and read straight through it to the end of chapter four, from which part the Gospel reading for today’s Mass comes, we see how the Lord employs his authority.  He is certain, deliberate, and direct.  His teaching is unlike that of the Pharisees, which confined itself seemingly to matters of ritual.  He quotes from the Law and the Prophets but in order to show the truth of his teaching rather than merely to comment on them.  And his miracles are of the same character.  When he heals a person, the person is healed immediately.  Demons object to their exorcism but they do not fail to depart when he orders them to do so. 

We see this impression of him exemplified in the present account. The impression is actually that of St. Peter as relayed by his secretary Mark.  Reading carefully, we can catch something of Peter’s deep emotions on this occasion as he watched and heard our Lord.  It is evident that this event profoundly affected him, and reading further in the Gospel we can see how this led to his confession of faith in Jesus.

“Let us cross to the other side.”  Peter, looking back on this event, must have wondered if the Lord had meant all along to confront the approaching storm.  Certainly, Jesus knew of it but rather than order his disciples to take shelter somewhere, he told them to set out for where they would meet it.  By this means he could teach the Apostles, shortly after they have been chosen by him, to trust him implicitly.  The storm that does blow up, seemingly out of nowhere, signifies both personal suffering and persecution for the sake of the Lord.  Peter, in giving the Lord’s order here reveals the misgivings he felt at the time, for a trip across the sea is risky after dark.  There was also no advantage in making it at that time, for whatever town they landed at would have been locked up for the night.  “They took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.”  This is a pregnant little phrase, and it’s meaning is not clear.  It does imply that in some way the Lord was ill-equipped for the trip.  This in turn implies urgency on his part.  “A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.”  The next line tells us that Jesus was already asleep so a little time has passed from when they set out, so they must have been out a ways from the shore when the storm struck.  “Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.”  This terse sentence, passed from Peter to Mark to us, is all Peter thinks we need to know.  Its very plainness reveals the shock Peter felt, seeing Jesus calmly asleep as the Apostles bale for their lives even as the boat capsizes.  “They woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ ”  They were appealing to him to help bale.  

“He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ ”  There is no panic, no desperation.  He wakes up and speaks to the wind and the sea.  “The wind ceased and there was great calm.”  As in his cures, the result is immediate.  All at once, the storm is gone.  It does not subside.  It disappears.  Perhaps later the Apostles remembered God’s words from Job, speaking of his creation of the oceans: “And I said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: And here shall your proud waves be stayed” (Job 38, 11).  Or from Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth!”  

“They were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”  We can hear the wonder that still sounds in Peter’s voice as he recalls this.  He asks the question here.  He gives the only possible answer later when he confesses: “You are the Son of the living God.”