Who is This?

06-20-2021Weekly Reflection© J. S. Paluch Company

So we reenter ordinary time already knowing that Jesus is the son of God (see the centurion‘s words at the end of the Palm Sunday passion reading from Mark‘s gospel), the long succession of Sunday’s confronts us again with the question that each Christian community, each individual Christian faces continually throughout life: “who is this?“ (Mark 4:41), and prompts and “examination of conscience“ regarding the practical consequences of our response. this year‘s Gospel readings from Mark suggest that we find our answer in the cross and in the Eucharist. Today’s stark challenge to Jesus’ call to discipleship is thankfully balanced by the comfort we can take in relating – perhaps only too well – to the disciples’ fears. Thou we welcome Jesus in word and Eucharist Sunday after Sunday, don’t we all, from time to time during our lives’ “ordinary time,“ experience Jesus‘s “real absence”?

Sea and Wind

As always in ordinary time, today’s Old Testament sets the stage for the gospel. God who in Jesus will “rebuke the wind“ and “command the seed to be still“ (Mark 4:39), “address is Job out of the storm“ (Job 38:1), speaking to the turmoil in Job‘s heart, calling to mind the primal chaos of creations on team to see, reminding Job that God‘s mighty word then was enough to come in order and bring forth life. In today’s gospel, the disciples fear even near despair take center stage. Are any of us strangers to such emotions? Squall force winds buffet their boat, waves break over it, and Jesus might as well not be there. Mark‘s account is especially grim. Alone among the evangelists, he tells us that Jesus is in the stern, the very back of the boat, not just a sleep – sound asleep! Only Mark has the detail, “on a cushion“ (4:38).

Awaken Christ

So we welcome Jesus in Word and Eucharist Sunday after Sunday, haven’t we all from time to time experienced Jesus‘s “real absence”? This personal application should comfort us, as it has generations of disciples before us. Though the boat is primarily a symbol of the church, never forsaken by Christ, carried safely across times stormy waters, Saint Augustine preaching on this very gospel 1600 years ago noted that, since each of us is a temple of God, each one’s heart is the sailing boat. Consider any temptation, says Augustine, as “the wind, the surging of the sea“ and do what the disciples did: wake up Christ, “the sleeper in our heart,“ by recalling his words and commands. Then be like the wind in the sea: “the CEO base him, the wind is still.“ Whenever emotions make our hearts turbulent, whenever Christ seems absent or at least asleep, “let us not despair but awaken Christ, so that we may sale in quiet waters, and reach out last our heavenly homeland.“

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