O, Lord! Continue To Grant Us Your Understanding

2 Samuel 12:1-7,10-17
Mark 4:35-41

In the Gospel, Christ awakens, quiets the sea, and then asks two questions of the Apostles: “Why are you terrified?” and “Do you not yet have faith?”. By this point in Mark’s Gospel, the Apostles have witnessed a couple of miracles and have just heard three parables about the Kingdom of God. Perhaps, these two questions have come out of disappointment and bewilderment as to why the Apostles haven’t understood the message yet. They were not paying attention. Hmm, how could the Apostles not pay attention to Jesus?

They were average fishermen, tax collectors, farmers, and the like. Common ordinary men who most likely distracted during some of Jesus’ teachings and miracles. Or they just didn’t understand. We know that they “get it” at Pentecost after receiving the Holy Spirit. The last verse in today’s Gospel tells us that they were still trying to figure it all out, “They were filled with awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

The spiritual life is a journey of reflecting on our own life and how God is there helping us along the way. What questions is Christ asking you? What questions do you have for Christ? Have you figured it out? How many times have we found ourselves in difficult situations? Our desires pull us one way and the Word of God comes to us, reproaches us and then we see with clarity. How do we come clean to him?

When we are tossed about in turmoil and turbulence, like the disciples were in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, our inability to confront the storms in our lives, compels us to Jesus, afraid and frightened. Jesus will not only rebuke the storm but may rebuke us also for being people of little faith. Therefore, Let us repent of our sins and allow the grave of God to make of us a new heart and a new spirit.

Fr Joseph Osho