The other shore

XII Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B - June 23, 2024

Roman Rite

Jb 38, 1.8-11; Ps 107; 2 Cor 5.14 to 17; 4.35 to 41 Mk 

Ambrosian Rite
Gen18.17 to 21; 19, 1.12-13.15.23-29; Ps 32; 1 Cor 6.9 to 12; Mt 22, 1-14 

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. 

 

 

1)     Sailing to the other shore 

Regarding this Sunday Gospel describing the calming of the storm, first of all I would like to draw the attention to the opening sentence of Jesus "Let us cross to the other side of the shore" (Mk 4, 35). 

It is an invitation that Jesus makes to his disciples after having spoken of the kingdom of heaven that from a seed becomes a big tree. As I have said before, wanting to "be" with Christ is a verb of motion because it necessarily implies a move to follow Him. 

It is a call made in the early evening when Jesus' followers think they have concluded the day travel and have the humane and right need to stop and rest from the strain of taking with Christ the gospel to the people. The first movement of this “going further” is to leave the crowd, to be alone with Jesus, to go away with him from the shore where they had arrived. 

The boat is our life that sails with the Savior. It is a boat that rides the waves of time and space and is able to carry the Son of God. Jesus, true man and true God, is so powerful that it does not care about the storm. Sometimes the wind blows violently. It represents all the voices that move in and out of us and that often rise with such force that they deviate our steps that until recently had moved safely on the path. The waves spill into the boat: what is part of our day and that we seem to know well is turned against us and events happen that seize us suddenly, make us feel at the mercy of the unexpected and fill with fear the life that we think we have. 

Today Jesus gives us a clear lesson on how to approach the sea of personal history and of the world. We must sail with him, we must take Him on our boat "as he is" (Mk 4. 36), for He will take us to the other side saving us from the stormy waters. 

With Christ, whose love is stronger than the force of nature, we can get to the other shore that is reachable thanks to confident abandonment in him. The storms of the nature and 

that of the human heart are dangerous and can lead to death. The "storm of the heart God” brings peace, as long as we, like the apostles, say "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing ?" (Mk 4, 38). 

 

2) Jesus was asleep, but his heart was awake. 

Only in this passage of St. Mark’s gospel we see Jesus asleep. How to interpret this sleeping? Jesus is really tired. After a day of preaching in which he spent so much energy, the Savior boards the boat and falls deeply asleep to the point of not even hearing the noise of the wind and of the waves. Here we can see the real humanity of Jesus. However, it is useful to add some other explanation: Jesus trusts his disciples and has no doubt about their responsibility and professional capacity. We too ought to trust him. Certainly his attitude is full of mystery. His peaceful sleep means –I think - full confidence in God, the trust of the Son who feels protected and loved in the Father’s arms also in the storms of sea and of life. 

We must make ours this attitude of Christ, maybe praying Psalm 131 that suggests one of the sweetest pictures of our surrender to God even under trial "I am calm and serene like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul "(131.2-3). 

 

3) The heart of man is a request for the infinite. 

Besides teaching us to have a total abandonment in Him, with his sleep on the boat tossed by stormy seas the Savior awakens the cry of our faith. In fact, in a tone of astonished reproach Jesus says to his disciples "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mk4, 40) The Son of God requires the faith of his brothers to awaken the power of his love. 

With the question “Why are you afraid?" Christ shifts the focus from the power of the miracle to the faith of the disciples, who have left their previous jobs, families and the "crowd" to be with him, following him along the roads of the world. And Jesus, Teacher and Friend, educates this faith making them understand that they should not expect a presence and a power of God that take away for them the effort of living. Moreover, He teaches them to be courageous (cor agere = to act with the heart) educating the heart 

How to respond to Christ who asks"Why are you afraid?" Asking him the same question of the father of the Apostles "Increase our faith, Lord" (Lk 17, 5). A faith that is an act of intelligence and abandonment of the will 

Let us make sure that our life is really the opening of our mind and our heart to a faith every day purer, to faith every day bigger. Let us pray that our faith may be more and more open to the gift of God. A mature faith makes us calm even in difficulties, and serene even in persecution. Think about how St. Peter in prison was sleeping peacefully. Think about the “little" Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus[1]. She, who died at 24, is the saint of simplicity and love, the saint of trusting abandonment to God's will. If we want to grow in faith we must educate our heart, imitating the "little" Saint of Lisieux. 

We must educate our heart to recognize Christ. Why do we use the verb to recognize? The etymology of to recognize is "ire ad cor" (go to the heart), it is to make my heart go to Christ's heart, and the heart of Christ go to my heart. Doing so we not only are unafraid in the boat of life, but with Christ we pacify the sea of life. 

A significant way of life that is able to recognize Christ is the one of the consecrated Virgins in the world. Through virginity these women educate their heart "by building it" in the heart of Christ, who loves and wants the good of those who donate themselves to Him. 

The way of the consecrated Virgin in the world is that of someone who does not own her neighbor, because her heart is full of the love of God. Being full of this love, she becomes a clear sign of it and uses toward the neighbor the kindness she received from God. Indeed virginity is a vocation to love: it makes the heart free to love God. Free from the duties of conjugal love, the virgin heart can feel more disposed to the gratuitous love for its brothers and the sisters.

Virginity, of course, implies the renunciation of the form of love which typifies marriage, but the waiver is made with the intention of making deeper the dynamism, inherent in sexuality, of altruistic opening to others, strengthening and transfiguring it by the presence of the Spirit that teaches us to love the Father and our brothers and sisters as did the Lord Jesus. 

 

Pope Benedict XVI on May 15, 2008 said:  "That your whole life may be a faithful witness of God's love and a convincing sign of the kingdom of heaven" (RCV, n. 17). Take care always to radiate the dignity of being a bride of Christ, expressing the newness of Christian existence and the serene expectation of future life. Thus, with your own upright life you will be stars to guide the world on its journey. The choice of virginal life, in fact, is a reference to the transient nature of earthly things and an anticipation of future rewards. Be witnesses of attentive and lively expectation, of joy and of the peace that characterizes those who abandon themselves to God's love. May you be present in the world, yet pilgrims bound for the Kingdom. Indeed, the consecrated virgin is identified with that bride who, in unison with the Spirit, invokes the coming of the Lord: "The Spirit and the Bride say "Come" (Rv 22: 17)” (Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the participants in the international congress-pilgrimage of the Ordo Virginum).

 

 

 

Patristic Reading

Golden Chain On Mark 4,35-41

Pseudo-Jerome: After His teaching, they come from that place to the sea, and are tossed by the waves.

Wherefore it is said, "And the same day, when the even was come, &c."
Remig.: For the Lord is said to have had three places of refuge, namely, the ship, the mountain, and the desert. As often as He was pressed upon by the multitude, He used to fly to one of these. When therefore the Lord saw many crowds about Him, as man, He wished to avoid their importunity, and ordered His disciples to go over to the other side. 

There follows: "And sending away the multitudes, they took Him, &c." [p. 86]
Chrys., Hom. in Matt. 28: The Lord took the disciples indeed, that they might be spectators of the miracle which was coming, but He took them alone, that no others might see that they were of such little faith.
Wherefore, to shew that others went across separately, it is said, "And there were also with Him other ships."
Lest again the disciples might be proud of being alone taken, He permits them to be in danger; and besides this, in order that they might learn to bear temptations manfully.
Wherefore it goes on, "And there arose a great storm of wind;" and that He might impress upon them a greater sense of the miracle which was to be done, He gives time for their fear, by sleeping.
Wherefore there follows, "And He was Himself in the hinder part of the ship, &c."
For if He had been awake, they would either not have feared, not have asked Him to save them when the storm arose, or they would not have thought that He could do any such things. Theophylact: Therefore He allowed them to fall into the fear of danger, that they might experience His power in themselves, who saw others benefitted by Him. But He was sleeping upon the pillow of the ship, that is, on a wooden one.
Chrys., Hom. in Matt. 28: Shewing His humility, and thus teaching us many lessons of wisdom. But not yet did the disciples who remained about Him know His glory; they thought indeed that if He arose He could command the winds, but could by no means do so reposing or asleep.
And therefore there follows, "And they awake Him, and say unto Him, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?"
Theophylact: But He arising, rebukes first the wind, which was raising the tempest of the sea, and causing the waves to swell, and this is expressed in what follows, "And He arose, and rebuked the wind;" then He commands the sea.
Wherefore it goes on, "And He said to the sea, Peace, be still." 

coming of the Lord: "The Spirit and the Bride say "Come'" (Rv 22: 17) 

Gloss.: For from the troubling of the sea there arises a certain sound, which appears to be its voice threatening danger, and therefore, by a sort of metaphor, He fitly commands tranquility by a word signifying silence: just as in the restraining of the winds, which trouble the sea with their violence, He uses a rebuke. 

For men who are in power are accustomed to curb those, who rudely disturb the peace of mankind, by threatening to punish them; by this, therefore, we are given to understand, that, as a king can repress violent (p. 87) men by threats, and by his edicts sooth the murmurs of his people, so Christ, the King of all creatures, by His threats restrained the violence of the winds, and compelled the sea to be silent.
And immediately the effect followed, for it continues, "And the wind ceased," when He had threatened, "and there arose a great calm," that is, in the sea, to which He had commanded silence.
Theophylact: He rebuked His disciples for not having faith; for it goes on, "And He said unto them, Why are ye so fearful?" How is it that ye have not faith? For if they had faith, they would have believed that even when sleeping, He could preserve them safe.
There follows, "And they feared with a great fear, and said one to another, &c."
For they were in doubt about Him, for since He stilled the sea, not with a rod like Moses, nor with prayers as Elisha at the Jordan, nor with the ark as Joshua, the son of Nun, on this account they thought Him truly God, but since He was asleep, they thought Him a man.
Pseudo-Jerome: Mystically, however, the hinder part of the ship is the beginning of the Church, in which the Lord sleeps in the body only, for He never sleepeth who keepeth Israel; for the ship with its skins of dead animals keeps in the living, and keeps out the waves, and is bound together by wood, that is, by the cross and the death of the Lord the Church is saved.
The pillow is the body of the Lord, on which His Divinity, which is as His head, has come down. But the wind and the sea are devils and persecutors, to whom He says Peace, when He restrains the edicts of impious kings, as He will.
The great calm is the peace of the Church after oppression, or a contemplative after an active life.
Bede: Or else the ship into which He embarked, is taken to mean the tree of His passion, by which the faithful attain to the security of the safe shore. The other ships which are said to have been with the Lord signify those who are imbued with faith in the cross of Christ, and are not beaten about by the whirlwind of tribulation; or who, after the storms of temptation, are enjoying the serenity of peace.
And whilst His disciples are sailing on, Christ is asleep, because the time of our Lord's Passion came on His faithful ones when they were meditating on the rest of His future reign.
Wherefore it is related, that it took place late, that not only the sleep of our Lord, but the hour itself of departing (p. 88) light might signify the setting of the true Sun.
Again, when He ascended the cross, of which the stern of the ship was a type, His blaspheming persecutors rose like the waves against Him, driven on by the storms of the devils, by which, however, His own patience is not disturbed, but His foolish disciples are stuck with amazement. The disciples awake the Lord, because they sought, with most earnest wishes, the resurrection of Him whom they had seen die. Rising up, He threatened the wind, because when He had triumphed in His resurrection, He prostrated the pride of the devil.
He ordered the sea to be still, that is, in rising again, He cast down the rage of the Jews. The 

disciples are blamed, because after His resurrection, He chided them for their unbelief. And we also when being marked with the sign of the Lord's cross, we determine to quit the world, embark in the ship with Christ; we attempt to cross the sea; but, He goes to sleep, as we are sailing amidst the roaring of the waters, when amidst the strivings of our virtues, or amidst the attacks of evil spirits, of wicked men, or of our own thoughts, the flame of our love grows cold. Amongst storms of this sort, let us diligently strive to awake Him; He will soon restrain the tempest, pour down peace upon us, give us the harbour of salvation. 

 

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[1] The name Theresa of the Child Jesus, that she chose when she was nine years old when she expressed the desire to become a Carmelite, had remained ever present to her and she tried to deserve it constantly. Late, under an image of the Child Jesus, she wrote this sentence "O little Child, my only treasure, I abandon myself to your divine whims, I will have no other joy than to make you smile. Imprint on me your graces and your virtues of a child, so that the day of my birth into heaven, the angels and saints may recognize in your little bride, Theresa of the Child Jesus. "