An elderly woman named Maude had a window seat on a big 747 that had just taken off for Rome. She had been saving for years to fulfill her dream to visit the Eternal City. But this was her first flight and she was terrified. Even the stately presence of four bishops sitting behind her didn’t help. With fear and trembling, she peeked out the window just as one of the plane’s engines broke loose from the wing and disappeared into the clouds. “We’re going to die!” she cried out, “We’re going to die!”
The pilot then announced that everything was under control and that they could fly back to New York with three engines and land safely. But Maude continued to cry out, “We’re going to die!” A flight attendant finally said to her, “Don’t worry my dear. God is with us. We have only three engines, but look, we have four bishops.” Maude replied, “I’d rather have four engines and three bishops, thank you!”
Judging by the crowds at the airport on any given day, fear of flying isn’t common but fear itself is something we can all relate to. One of the most memorable lines ever spoken by President Franklin Roosevelt dealt with fear. In his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933, he said, “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
The gospel scene from Mark places us in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples were terrified and for good reason. These storms could come literally out of the blue with terrifying suddenness, much like tornados do in the Deep South and Midwest. You might have thought what fools these men were to go out but keep in mind that all was calm when they embarked to go to the other side.
In this short passage, Mark portrays them as being so afraid that they asked Jesus, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Perhaps you have asked God the same question, when you were in a crisis situation, wondering if your misfortune is God’s will. God is omnipotent but God doesn’t decide the events of our lives. They are byproducts of free will, either the choices we make or others make.
After quieting the storm, Jesus asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” What an interesting question. “Do you not yet have faith?” They had been with him for some time and seen some miracles, so we can assume that they had faith but perhaps their faith was tired.
The disciples were in danger but their most dangerous threat wasn’t the weather or a leaky boat. It was the temptation to give up and yield to fear. It was that “nameless, unreasoning terror which paralyzes” that FDR spoke of. Fear has the potential to incapacitate us. Unless something overrides it, fear can shut us down.
And what might that something be? As far as Mark is concerned, Jesus is that something that can free us from whatever fears we have, just as he did for the disciples in the midst of that storm “to convert retreat into advance.”
In the 35 years I have been a priest, I have weathered a fair number of storms and I imagine many couples have done the same in their marriages, be it dealing with the loss of job, the death of a loved one, a life-changing illness or injury, rejection of some kind, to name but a few. In any case, you can probably relate to Job in his despair or to the disciples in their fear. Each time, you somehow reacted to the situation. Did you panic? Or did you pray? And if you prayed, did you feel as though God was responding? More than once, people have lamented that praying seemed so useless. God isn’t answering me!
I would tell them that quite likely God is answering them but not in the way they want their prayers to be answered. Prayer is a conversation and if we are to hear God, then we need to be still long enough so that we can hear God. Recall that Jesus said, “Quiet! Be still!” Too often we do all the talking when we pray. In times of trouble, the best advice we have is this: be still and listen to God. With the TV blasting in the background or our ears linked to an iPod or Airpods, we aren’t giving ourselves much chance to hear what God has to say. The clatter of our noisy world drowns out God’s quiet whisper but when we take time to quiet down, we will discover for ourselves that God is truly there.
St. Theresa of Calcutta once said, “The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith” With faith, no trouble is too much for God to handle. That is the point Jesus and Job were both making in these readings. With faith, grounded in prayer, “no storm,” as the refrain to one song puts it, “can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I’m clinging.”
Fifty years ago, I was awakened by a fire while staying with a friend, so I can relate to the fear of a young boy trapped in his burning house. His father stood on the lawn with his outstretched arms, yelling, “Jump, son! I will catch you!” All the boy could see from the second floor was smoke, flames and blackness. Naturally, he was afraid. “Jump!” his father said again. “But, Daddy, I can’t see you!” His father replied, “But I can see you and that is all that matters.” God sees us and that is all that matters.