12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – June 20, 2021 Job 38: 1, 8-11 / Psalm 107 / 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17 / Mark 4: 35-41
“Do you not yet have faith?” The disciples are terrified in the midst of the storm. The boat is rocking and filling with water. Things don’t look good. And all the while, Jesus is there in the boat at fast asleep, unworried, and entirely at peace. And when they wake him, he asks them that question: “Do you not yet have faith?” Do you not yet have faith. I imagine that, for most of us, it isn’t hard to relate this story to our own experience. It is all too often that life doesn’t go as we’ve planned. Storms are everywhere. And in those difficult moments, if you’re like me, you may sometimes find yourself stressed out, afraid, and even panicked, feeling helpless before the circumstances that life has thrown at you. Life is like that. It is a bumpy ride. But what is it that makes us panic in those difficult moments? What is it that makes us worried, stressed or afraid when life doesn’t go just as we’d like it to go? Jesus’s answer? Lack of faith. “Do you not yet have faith?” Our Lord says. What does he mean by “lack of faith?” After all, we’re followers of Christ, right? We come to church. Each of us is, hopefully, trying to live a Christian life, obeying the commandments, pray. And yet, if we are overcome with worry, stress or fear, this, Our Lord Suggests, shows a lack of faith. It all comes down, I think, to whether our attitude towards life is that of a Christian, or of an unbeliever. There is a difference. fundamentally, the unbeliever lives life for himself. The purpose of life, for those who do not know Christ, is, understandably, to have as much enjoyment as we can before we die. Now that does not mean being a “bad person” per se, it might just mean that I want to have a secure job, a good marriage, a few kids, friends and basically making the best of the time I have, getting as much enjoyment out of life as I can. But us Christians, who live a life of faith, our attitude towards life ought to be totally different. As Christians, we have been bought by a great price, by the blood of Christ, and our lives are no longer our own. My life is no longer about me. In baptism I have died and now I belong not to myself, but to the Lord. As St. Paul says:
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.
The default for any human being is to live for self. But once we have been adopted as God’s children, we are given a new plan of life, and our purpose is no longer to live for ourselves, but to live for Christ and in imitation of Christ. And what does that mean? Well, it means living as Christ lived: in submission to the Father and in total service to others. It’s a fundamental attitude change really. It is a new life; God calls us to live. I challenge you to try a little experiment. Each night, before bed, review your day, set it before your mind’s eye, replaying it like a movie. And then ask, “How much of the day did I spend thinking about myself?” When I do this, all too often I find that the answer is: almost the whole day. And that is the wrong answer for a Christian. We are called not spend our life in self-focus, serving ourselves and then stopping by church on Sunday. The Lord Jesus expects us to live a life of faith, and that means a life where we are constantly asking Him, to make us useful to others. As Christians, that’s really our sole purpose. Please understand me, I’m not saying that we should make time to serve others once in a while. I’m saying that our entire life should be devoted to serving others in one way or another. That is the way Jesus lived, and as the Master lived, so we, his servants are called to live. Now of course, this seems like an impossible standard. But it’s only impossible if we think we can do it on our own power, rather than asking God’s help. Because with God all things are possible. And so we have to keep our eyes on Him. Because whatever we do, the outcome of our actions is always in his hands anyway. How does this relate to the disciples in the boat? And how does it relate to the storms in our own lives? Well, if we are living for ourselves, focused on ourselves, then dealing with the storms of life is our responsibility. Hence, when things start to go wrong, we panic, because we think that we are supposed to be in control. But faith helps us recognize that we aren’t in control, God is. And when life gets difficult, all a Christian has to do is say, “Lord, thy will be done, help me to be of service to others in this situation, storm or no storm.” And then we listen for Lord’s answer in our heart and obey. And we don’t need to worry about how things turn out. The outcome is up to him, not us. In the wise words of Mother Theresa: “God doesn’t call us to be successful, He calls us to be faithful.” This is the life of faith to which Jesus is constantly inviting us: a life of service, a life lived not for ourselves, but for Him and for others. “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.”