Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Be Still and Have Faith
I’d like to this of today as “Good Refuge Sunday.” Just as there is “Good Shepherd Sunday” in Easter, named after the gospel of that day, so today’s gospel is of Jesus, our Refuge, who calms the wind and seas of our lives.
As the story goes, Jesus and the disciples were on a boat. A storm surged up and made the disciples fearful for their lives. But Jesus was fast asleep, for it was evening. The disciples wake him up, as though they could not help themselves. In words more upsetting to Jesus than to the disciples, they say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
On March 27, 2020, Pope Francis gave the world a message of hope and an extraordinary blessing (Urbi Et Orbi) upon the distressing onset of our own worldwide storm: the Coronavirus Pandemic. He reflected on this very passage from the Gospel of Mark, and on this poignant rhetorical question of the disciples:
“Do you not care: they think that Jesus is not interested in them, does not care about them. One thing that hurts us and our families most when we hear it said is: “Do you not care about me?” It is a phrase that wounds and unleashes storms in our hearts. It would have shaken Jesus, too, because he, more than anyone, cares about us. Indeed, once they have called on him, he saves his disciples from their discouragement.” (Meditation of the Holy Father, 27 March 2020)
After rebuking the wind and saying to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” Jesus poses to the disciples a rhetorical question of his own, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
It is not that the disciples had no faith in Jesus—they had followed him this far, and have enough faith in him to wake him up. No, the faith that Jesus is talking about is a different kind of faith, a deeper faith.
Perhaps there is something in Jesus’ words and behavior that gives us a clue to the kind of faith he is calling us to. “Quiet! Be still!” he says. Jesus is asleep during a storm. His attitude is a calm reserve, trusting in the Father that everything will be okay.
Reflection: Take some time for prayer today. Find a quiet corner and just be still. Set a timer for five minutes, and ask Jesus for a deeper faith.
Reflection by Br. Luke Kral, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections