Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is with his disciples in a boat on the sea. They encounter a storm and the disciples panic, waking Jesus up from a nap to save them. He says to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” and then goes on to stop the storm and waves, amazing his followers. I love this story, mostly because I love when I can relate to the disciples. Every time I read it or hear it, I can’t help but think, “Well, what were they supposed to do?” I would have done the same thing if I had God incarnate in a boat with me during a storm! Do they not show faith in Jesus by relying on him to stop the storm? So why is Jesus rebuking them?
Perhaps Jesus rebukes them because of who they are. Many of his disciples were fishermen, and surely they have encountered storms before. We don’t get many details from the story but I get the sense that instead of relying on the gifts and talents God has given them, as well as the many years of experience God has blessed them with, the disciples were too quick to look for miracles. They fail to see, it seems, that God can and does work through more ordinary means than big, showy miracles that break the laws of physics. We can be thankful for this moment to see Jesus’ power, of course, but Jesus rebukes his disciples for not realizing that God’s grace is already with them, ready to save them from life’s storms.
Like I said, I love when the disciples do such relatable things. We could have ended up with a Bible full of perfect characters, but instead we have stories full of real people struggling with their relationships to God. This is a beautiful gift. The disciples in today’s Gospel might be able to show us something about our own expectations of God. I think that too often, Christians look to God for the big, showy miracles, hoping and praying that God will swoop in to solve our problems like, as one writer says, a “divine butler.”
Surely God is capable and generous with miracles, but we cannot give in to view of God that stops here. We must work hard to acknowledge the grace already all around us and inside us. This means that many of our problems—both personally and as a society—may have their answers in our own spirit-led efforts. This is scary because it means that we must confront not only our problems but also our responsibilities. The storms we encounter should turn us to the grace of God, but are we ready to be the means through which God helps us and those around us weather them?
- Katherine G. Schmidt