Calming of the storm

I love this Gospel. We can see ourselves in the boat with Jesus, surrounded by a beautiful lake. It is still there; these natural elements don’t change. But it can become ugly. It is our experience of life. The sea in the Bible represents man depending on God’s mercy; anything could happen, we are not in control. We all have experienced good days and bad days. Why couldn’t life be good and beautiful? Because we are passing by; this is not our homeland. We are crossing the lake of life from one shore to the other, from the beginning to eternity. We don’t know how long it is going to take; we cannot see the other side. In any moment a storm can break out and we need to be ready. We cannot grow complacent and let the boat take its course. The devil is surrounding us like a roaring lion.

But we cannot forget that Jesus is in our boat. Or even better, we are with him. Even though many times he looks like he is asleep, he is always with us unless we push him out of our boat. We allow him to stay when the sun is shining and the birds are singing. But many times, when the storm comes, the wind blows and the waves beat against the hull of our boat, we push him away without thinking. No matter what happens, we cannot afford to sail without Jesus.

This scene in the Gospel of today is the only one where we see Jesus sleeping. He was so tired that he fell asleep and the storm didn’t wake him up. The apostles were so afraid that they woke him up. They didn’t allow him to rest. Saint Therese of Liseux has a beautiful quotation about letting Jesus keep resting: “Far from experiencing any consolation, complete aridity - desolation, almost - was my lot. Jesus was asleep in my little boat as usual. How rarely souls let Him sleep peacefully within them. Their agitation and all their requests have so tired out the Good Master that He is only too glad to enjoy the rest I offer Him. I do not suppose He will wake up until my eternal retreat, but instead of making me sad, it makes me very happy.” We are too quick to wake him up, to complain about what’s happening to us. Every storm in our lives has a meaning; we need to pray to find the clues. We either collapse mentally or we grow.

Jesus stood up and calmed the storm in one go. He complained about us, not letting him rest, and about our lack of faith, our lack of trust in him. With one word he can calm any storm in our lives. He knows what we are going through, and normally lets things happen. We need to trust in him, knowing that he is in our little boat with us. Once a man crossed the Niagara Falls walking on a cable pushing a wheel barrow. When he arrived at the other side people cheered him. He asked them if he should do it again. All encouraged him. He asked if anybody wanted to travel on the wheel barrow. You could hear a pin drop. We find it difficult to trust others.

The Gospel says that the apostles were very impressed with Jesus, saying: Who is this guy? Even the wind and the waves obey him. The four Gospels include this scene; it made a big impression on them. We know who he is and what he can do. We go to Mary our mother, Refuge of Sinners, Ark of the Covenant.

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The mustard seed

Today Jesus tries to explain the kingdom of heaven through two parables, using a comparison about seeds. He loves using natural images from the fields, from the human experience of farmers of that time. Unlike us, seeds were very important to them. We don’t normally buy seeds and plant them in the ground, unless you have a vegetable garden. But for those people seeds were the future. They had to plan how they were going to eat during the months ahead. We have supermarkets; all we need is money.

Seeds tell us about how things grow. It is a mysterious process that escapes our control. It shows us the power of nature; things grow in the most amazing places. It is the same with God’s things. He has his plans and has the power to produce fruit whenever he wants, wherever he wills. You learn a lot reading the history of the Church. How things are born small, grow to an amazing size and then they disappear. It is a circle that comes and goes. It is easy for us human beings to become proud of the achievements of God. We think that we are doing something, and all we do is to be a spanner in the works. Once pride comes in, God runs away. It is very important for us not to think that we are indispensable, that we are at the same level as God. We are just little children being more of a nuisance than any help.

Sometimes we doubt that God is in control. We can hardly notice the seeds sprouting, we don’t see the fruits, the actions of God in society. On the contrary, we touch more the machinations of the evil one, the hand of the devil clearly present among us. From our point of view we see only a flat terrain. John Paul II used to talk about the new evangelisation, a new spring in the Church. He could see it from his vantage point. We cannot see it with our large egos.

Pope Francis commenting on this parable says that “Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a small grain of mustard seed. It is a very small grain, but it grows to become the largest of all plants in the garden: unpredictable growth, surprising. It is not easy for us to enter into this logic of the unpredictable nature of God and to accept it in our own lives. But today the Lord exhorts us to have an attitude of faith that goes beyond our projects, our calculations, our forecasts. God is always the God of surprises, the Lord always surprises us. It is an invitation to open ourselves more generously to God’s plans.”

God normally works in this way, like the mustard seed. Things always begin small, with few people, sometimes with just a holy person, with a slow gradual process, quietly growing under the soil, with time to mature. God’s kingdom keeps growing. How did the Franciscans begin? Through a voice to a young man: rebuild my Church. It is something amazing, to look at the hand of God working through history. You cannot see it at a particular moment, but you notice it in the long run.

josephpich@gmail.com

Jesus’ relatives

It was very difficult for Jesus’ relatives to understand him, to figure out what had happened to him. For thirty years he had been the carpenter’s son, a good worker, a bit introverted, maybe shy, never married and liking going out on his own to pray in solitary places. Suddenly Jesus began his public life, preaching the Gospel, performing miracles and surrounding himself with twelve men, called apostles, going around villages and towns, with crowds following him. Why didn’t he show his talents before? Why didn’t he use them with his relatives and friends? They thought that either he had become mad, lost his mind, or an evil spirit had possessed him.

It happens to us when we take our faith seriously, when we have a conversion, when suddenly we find out what God wants from us. Our life takes on a new course, a bright star has been lighted and we see things with different eyes. People around us who haven’t seen our new light are left behind and don’t understand our new outlook. They think we have become fanatical, self-possessed or even a bit weird. They try to help us, to change our mind, to bring us back to reality. But we know where they are; we have been there before. And we know they cannot see what we see, they are not ready to experience what we are going through. We don’t want to change back and we would like them to discover what we see now. Sometimes by pushing our faith on them, we can make things worse. All we can do is give them a good example, to show them the strength of our faith, the promises of our hope and the warmth of our love.

Jesus’ relatives thought he was mad, and they were right; he was crazy for us. We cannot help being moved, realizing what Jesus did for love of us. Many saints, following Christ’s example, have been taken for madmen, because they were mad with love, mad with love for Jesus Christ. The Cure of Ars used to say: “To be holy, you need to be mad.” To follow Jesus you need to be out of your mind. Saint Francis was called the mad man of Assisi. Love is crazy and whoever is in love does crazy things. It is amazing what the saints have done for the love of God.

The other accusation against Jesus is that he was possessed by the devil. Jesus defends himself with a simple logic: if someone expels the devil this means that he is stronger than the devil. We are not to be afraid of the devil. Jesus uses his power to free us from the enslavement to Satan, which means “enemy”. His dominion has come to an end: the prince of this world is about to be cast out. Jesus’ victory over the power of darkness, shows that the light has already entered the world.

“Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Saint Thomas Aquinas says that by saying this, Jesus gave preference to the eternal generation over the temporal one. Our Lady has an outstanding position in both. She was his mother on earth by generation, and his mother in heaven by obeying her Son above everything else. But Jesus obeyed her first, by being the best Son ever.

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