12th SUNDAY of Ordinary Time, year ’B’ 12e dimanche du temps ordinaire, année ’B’
“With the coming of evening that same day, he said to them, ’Let us cross over to the other side.”
And leaving the crowd, they took Jesus, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him.Then it began to blow a great gale and the waves were breaking into he boat so that it was almost swamped"
Many years later, the disciples will discover Jesus, they will have had to abandon the idea of knowing Jesus humanly speaking and make an act of faith.Today they have questions about Jesus’ personality, they see him tired like any other man, they live on a daily basis with him considering him as a Master and they see him doing many miracles. Jesus is asleep in the boat, the sea is in upsurge and the disciples are crying out loud! The disciples are afraid, for following Jesus is an adventure full of emotions, touching their human history. When the storm comes, their faith goes through a great trial and God uses these events to have us make the passage towards a trustful attitude. It is a question of making a passage and leaning on Jesus who gives God’s Peace. It really is another image of God that we’re hearing, and at the same time another image of mankind is announced. Faith is what has us understand the inner person of Jesus, since it is love that allows us to really understand a human being. And this faith will be born of the resurrection which, as it lightens up Jesus’ Body, enlightens also
his life and has us understand the truth and faith of the acts he did. So the disciples will be able to go from an outer understanding of Jesus’ acts to an inner understanding of the Saviour.
“But Jesus was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, ’Master, do you not care? We are lost! And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ’Quiet now! Be calm!’ And the wind dropped and there followed a great calm.”
And so now Jesus gives a command to the elements, the sea and wind, addressing the sea with words of authority :’ Silence, be quiet." and the calm comes. If they cannot judge Jesus definitively, they ask themselves questions, trying to understand.If we go no further than seeing Jesus from the outside, the historical Jesus, this can prevent us from making acts of faith, at those moments when the temptation is great to reduce Jesus, the Son of God, to just a historical Jesus, to a man and nothing more, someone to get to know within the confines of our own understanding. Jesus said to his disciples : let us go over to the other side. We want to be part of this new world. Even if we pass through storms regarding our trust in the Church, the community of poor people that always has to be converted, is always in each one of her members. Jesus who is weak and tired, sleeping on a cushion, is the strong Jesus who
calms the tempest and it is the same unique Jesus, true God and true man. Our meditation can lead us to stop more or less at one aspect, but our faith has us hold on to both of them, in the unique person of Jesus the Incarnate Word. And it is of this faith that Jesus wants to speak to us about in this Gospel as to give us its true meaning. This faith is capable of making the jump from the historical Jesus to Christ the Saviour.
“Jesus then said to them : ’Why are you so frightened? Have you still no faith?’ They were overcome with awe and said to one another, ’Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’”
Jesus opposes faith with something we’re not expecting : cowardliness, fear, lack of courage. And this can be heard in two ways : faith ought to give courage, and on the other hand, faith demands courage. Faith, as such, is an act of confidence, and not just a mere intellectual adhesion to strengthen our courage. Faced with difficulties, faith as a Covenant of man and God is an opening up of a presence that walks at our side. If faith can give courage, it is all the more true that demands it. By definition, confidence goes beyond all evidence and proof. It can even go as far as asking to make choices where rationality is not enough. More, often it requires that we risk our life over a Word, invited by Our Lord Jesus. Jesus companions don’t have faith for faith requires act making. Faith helps us but it begins by bearing a cost. No-one can exempt us from the courage we need on our spiritual journey to leap in faith risking our lives :
The “Don’t be afraid”that Jesus tells us is the thread of the gospel. if we had a tiny bit of courage we would know how to trust ; and knowing how to trust, we would find the courage to remain next to Jesus in the boat of the Church without awakening Jesus, along with Thérèse (St. Teresa of Lisieux) How good it is for us to become aware of the Church’s Mystery as an expression of God’s Infinite Love. Jesus can sleep in the Church’s boat our joy is t remain in the Infinite Love of God.It is present in each face that shines with the Love of Jesus, where the joy of following his call is quite obvious.