As someone who gets bad seasickness, I can really identify with today’s Gospel. In fact it happened to us about ten years ago. We were on a ferry from Martha’s Vineyard (or it might have been Nantucket, I can remember which) back to mainland on a Massachusetts vacation. I think I asked someone if I should take a seasick pill, and I was told that there was no need since it was a really stable ferry ship. It had been very smooth on the trip over. OK, so I didn’t take it. The ferry ride was supposed to be a couple of hours but less than an hour in forced everyone to go inside. There was some sort of squall. We sat at a table and as the ferry started to pitch and yaw, I started to pray. I knew what this would do to me. It wasn’t very long before I started to sweat, feel nauseous, heave, and then it came up and out. It was terrible. It lasted the whole ride back. Poor Matthew, who could not have been more than four, had to see his father incapacitated. Where was Jesus? I know exactly how the Apostles felt in today’s Gospel.
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?”
~Mk 4:35-41
Oh, if only Jesus had
been there to say “Quiet! Be still!” Maybe it wouldn’t have been so hard on my
stomach.
Fr. Geoffrey Plant
explains the context of the situation, location, and significance extremely well.
Sunday Meditation: “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
I will answer that question by answering it as the same person who died but resurrected, of which this passage bears some analogy.
The storm reminds me
of the beautiful hymn, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” performed here by jazz
singer, Jimmy Scott.
Jimmy Scott had an unusually high voice for a male singer, which made his renditions
unique. I think Jimmy Scott's rendition
of this beautiful hymn is my all-time favorite.
There is such suffering in his voice.
It feels so honest.
