From the pastor’s desk on the 12th Sunday, year B
The pandemic that started last year has revealed how much fear is in all of us. It has specially revealed how much we are afraid of dying. Many people desperately were clinging to this life only, as if nothing existed beyond this world. Based on that fear many of us started making silly decisions such as accumulating toilet paper or non perishable goods for our home food pantry beyond the capacity to use it in reasonable time frame. Would all those actions really save us? How futile our efforts proved to be?! I think this Sunday’s readings perfectly fit in this context. The word of God calls us to cast out our fear and to trust the Lord as if our life depended on Him only — in fact, our life totally depends on Christ. However, we must come to realization of that on our own terms. The thought of Jesus being our Lord and Savior must reach the level of our heart and reason and become the plan of our life.
Fear and excessive anxiety certainly do not originate in the Christian worldview. As a matter of fact, our fears originate from the spirit of this world. It is this kind of spirit that rejects the notion of God and leads people to despair. For those who under the influence of the spirit of the world, all that matters is the preservation of life at all costs. Being affected by this kind of thinking many people do only that what seems to be humanly feasible and what may prolong our life on earth. But what about our salvation? Is this not the most import thing for a believer? And what about our faith in Jesus Christ? Is He not the Lord of Lords and the King of kings? Does He not know what we need? Certainly, Jesus does know all our needs. However, Jesus knows that our greatest need is our salvation - He communicated that very clearly in the gospels. Thus, each Catholic, each Christian should embrace the hope of life in Jesus Christ first, in order to steer our life on earth towards the things of heaven. Otherwise we will become a nuisance to the world and to ourselves. For that reason Saint Paul was admonishing the Christian community in Corinth:
The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
(2 Cor 5:14-17)
Yes, in baptism we already have died in Christ. If we do not feel it yet, let us earnestly pray that the Lord may wake us up to true life in God.
In this Sunday’s gospel passage too, we hear that the Lord rebukes the winds and waves that were overwhelming the apostles in their fragile boat while sailing in the lake of Galilee. Jesus reproached the disciples for their fear and lack of faith:
“Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
At times Jesus may look “sleeping” and distant, but faith in Jesus is the key. In fact, He is always watching us and waiting for our prayers. However, as long as we rely only on our strength and wit, He cannot come to our aid; Jesus can do nothing when we are too “strong.” It is only when we express our powerlessness and insufficiency the Lord can come to our rescue the way He did for the apostles in their fragile boat. This applies not only to our personal situations, but most of all to the universal (Catholic) Church on earth that seems to be shaken and tossed around by the waves and winds of scandals and hostile ideologies. Let us remember that the Lord Jesus can calm the rough waters of our troubled times too, but He wants our trust and unity in prayer. Without Him we can literally do nothing.
Come, Lord Jesus, and help us to “worship [God] without fear, holy and righteous in [Your] sight all the days of our life.”
Have a blessed week. Fr. Janusz Mocarski, pasto