“Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” -Mark 6:50
“Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid,” the Lord Jesus called out to them as they shudder in fear, for they thought that He was a ghost walking on the lake at daybreak. I wonder, did they eat too much that they thought they were seeing things? I remember our elders cautioning us: "Don't eat much at night lest you have nightmares!" But ghosts do visit us when we are awake as much as when we are asleep. It is not much food that we should avoid then. LESS LOVING WE MUST SHUN INSTEAD! For, in the first reading today (1 Jn 4:11-18), the Beloved Apostle reminds us: "There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives away fear...."
Then as the wind dropped, the gospel-writer said, the disciples were utterly and completely dumbfounded. They could not believe what they have just witnessed: Jesus walking on the lake and the nature bowing to Him. But did they not just witnessed earlier that evening how the same Jesus fed five thousand men with only five loaves of bread and two fish? Indeed, the disciples did not learn the lesson yet: WITH LOVE - TRUE LOVE, CHRIST-LIKE LOVE - ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.
1ST READING
Faith
is the knowledge of God and His goodness to us. John tells us that we
know of God’s goodness to us and, thus, are inspired to give our all in
being His disciples. It is important not to subject our faith to the
methods of science too much or we will be very disappointed and perhaps
even lose our faith. Knowledge born of faith is knowledge of the heart
and soul, and not necessarily of the mind, which is subject to the rules
of empirical science.
1 John 4:11-18
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. 14 Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. 15 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. 16 We
have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is
love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 17 In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There
is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has
to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.
P S A L M
Psalm 72:1-2, 10, 12-13
R: Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
1 O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the king’s son; 2 He shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment. (R) 10 The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts; the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute. (R) 12 For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him. 13He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor; the lives of the poor he shall save. (R)
GOSPEL
What
place does prayer have in your life? Are you always talking to God in
your prayer and leaving little time to sit and listen to His response?
Are you always beholden to one novena prayer after another and unable to
sit in silence before the Blessed Sacrament? The true challenge of
prayer is to allow it to be a dialogue where we are open to God speaking
to us. I am sure this is what He desires. The trick is learning how to
listen well and recognize His voice in the midst of all the “noise” in
our lives.
Mark 6:45-52
45 After the five thousand had eaten and were satisfied, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray. 47When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore. 48 Then
he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was
against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them
walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. 49 But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. 50 They had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” 51 He got into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were completely astounded. 52 They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.REFLECTION
FACING STORMS
Today,
the Gospel brings us in a boat on the Lake of Galilee, where the
disciples of Jesus were struggling against a strong wind. Jesus had
remained ashore to be with His Father in prayer. St. Mark illustrates
the scene as if he were describing the Christian community, or us, in
the boat of the Church, struggling to cross over to eternity. Was there
ever a time when the winds of time and ideologies were not against the
Church? Was there a period when we did not experience obstacles to our
faith, to our effort to live out our Christianity in an unchristian
world? Yes, the wind was, is and always will be against all that Christ
and His Church stands for.
The disciples in the boat felt abandoned. Where was Jesus? He had
preached and healed the whole day, fed the crowds, and now, when His
closest friends were in trouble, He was not there. We often experience
this, too. We feel Christ close to us when things go well. But we feel
lonely and abandoned when moments of apparent absence of Christ come.
Our faith tells us that Christ is always close to us, that He is always
with us. Did He not promise, “I will be with you always until the end
of time”? The test is this: Is our faith strong enough to trust that,
even in our darkest moments, God knows what we are going through and
that He is near to us?
When St. Mark writes, “Jesus could see they were worn out,” he
indicates that, though physically absent, Jesus was spiritually present
and knew about their situation. To assure them of His constant presence
and concern, He cut short His time with His Father and showed Himself to
them. A friend of mine copied today’s Gospel passage and always
carries it with him. The story of Jesus, consoling and helping His
friends, gives him the strength to cling to his faith in God’s loving
care and presence.
Who is the little child born in a simple cave? Why did God become one
of us in Jesus? Mark tells us, it is so that He would be our Emmanuel,
our “God with us.” Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD
"Lord, I thank You for reminding me
today of Your constant presence. Strengthen my faith, especially in
moments when it becomes difficult to trust in You."
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