Saturday January 29

Saturday of 3rd Week of Ordinary Time

 

Why Are You Afraid?

One of the most poignant, dramatic pages of the Old Testament is read to us today. David, the faithful servant of God, has committed adultery and murder. The prophet arouses the king’s indignation against those committing injustice and then tells David: That is what you have done! That man is you! The king’s acknowledgment and repentance is immediate and deep; God’s forgiveness too is instantaneous and absolute. “That person is you” applies often to us too; when we judge and condemn, is it not often our faults we condemn in others?

Many people are afraid today. Our times are very insecure in many aspects, with wars, violence, and economic and moral crises. Life seems to move too fast for many. And the Church, in its leaders and members, is often upset and afraid. God seems far away, like a God who sleeps, a God who seems indifferent to our fears and incertitude. Where are our faith and hope? Let us turn to him who journeys with us and wakes us up, Jesus, our Lord and brother here among us.

 

First Reading : 2 Sm 12:1-7a, 10-17

 But God was not at all pleased with what David had done, and sent Nathan to David. Nathan said to him, “There were two men in the same city—one rich, the other poor. The rich man had huge flocks of sheep, herds of cattle. The poor man had nothing but one little female lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up with him and his children as a member of the family. It ate off his plate and drank from his cup and slept on his bed. It was like a daughter to him.

 “One day a traveler dropped in on the rich man. He was too stingy to take an animal from his own herds or flocks to make a meal for his visitor, so he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared a meal to set before his guest.”

 David exploded in anger. “As surely as God lives,” he said to Nathan, “the man who did this ought to be lynched! He must repay for the lamb four times over for his crime and his stinginess!”

 “You’re the man!” said Nathan. “And here’s what God, the God of Israel, has to say to you: I made you king over Israel. I freed you from the fist of Saul. I gave you your master’s daughter and other wives to have and to hold. I gave you both Israel and Judah. And if that hadn’t been enough, I’d have gladly thrown in much more. So why have you treated the word of God with brazen contempt, doing this great evil? You murdered Uriah the Hittite, then took his wife as your wife. Worse, you killed him with an Ammonite sword! And now, because you treated God with such contempt and took Uriah the Hittite’s wife as your wife, killing and murder will continually plague your family. This is God speaking, remember! I’ll make trouble for you out of your own family. I’ll take your wives from right out in front of you. I’ll give them to some neighbor, and he’ll go to bed with themThen David confessed to Nathan, “I’ve sinned against God.”

Nathan pronounced, “Yes, but that’s not the last word. God forgives your sin. You won’t die for it. But because of your blasphemous behavior, the son born to you will die.”

 After Nathan went home, God afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he came down sick. David prayed desperately to God for the little boy. He fasted, wouldn’t go out, and slept on the floor. The elders in his family came in and tried to get him off the floor, but he wouldn’t budge. Nor could they get him to eat anything. On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him. They said, “What do we do now? While the child was living he wouldn’t listen to a word we said. Now, with the child dead, if we speak to him there’s no telling what he’ll do.”

 openly. You did your deed in secret; I’m doing mine with the whole country watching!”

 

Gospel Mk 4:35-41

Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?”

 Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?”

 They were in absolute awe, staggered. “Who is this, anyway?” they asked. “Wind and sea at his beck and call!”

 

Prayer

Lord, our God, merciful Father,
you do not seek the death of sinners,
but that they repent and live.
Your heart is too large to reject us
when we have been unfaithful to you.
Open our eyes to our share
in the evil in and around us;
give us new hearts,
humble in recognizing your patient mercy.
Make us toward our neighbor
understanding, patient and forgiving
for you have brought us pardon and peace
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Do you still have no faith?

“Let’s go to the other shore,” tells Jesus to his followers in the Gospel today. Imagine him saying it to us, his followers today, in the midst of this health, economic, social, global crisis … the Lord who invites us to move on!

In the Gospel, the purpose of the evangelist is to gradually reveal the identity of Jesus and answer the question people have been asking since the beginning of his public life: “Who is this person?”

In ancient literature, the image of the boat indicated a community or an association. In our story it is the Christian community together with different Christian communities already existing at the time when Mark was writing the Gospel. The boat is to bring Christ to the land of the pagans. Jesus falls asleep in the stern! Stern is the place for the captain. How can a captain sleep totally unaware of the storm and impending danger.

Sleep in the Bible, is often used to indicate death (Job 14:12; Sir 46:19). Even Jesus uses the word sleep figuratively, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep” (Jn 11:11); “The child is not dead but asleep” (Mk 5:39-40). Mark might be using this term “sleep” to refer to the death of Jesus. Now the disciples are tossed by the waves—which are the tragedies of life, persecution, tensions and disagreements within the Church community. But, Jesus although present in the boat, is asleep and does not intervene directly. Today’s passage is Mark’s way of understanding the life of the persecuted Church, where Jesus seems to be asleep or silent.

Christians can, at times, feel alone in the face of problems, adversities, failures and ask, “Where is God? Why does he not manifest his power?” Sometimes we feel him distant or absent; his silence baffles us and instils fear. We would shout to him, with the Psalmist: “Awake, O Lord, why are you asleep?

Today’s Gospel speaks to us about a God who “sleeps”, who leaves things as they are, who is not scared of an outbreak of violence of evil. He is a God who lets go, allows that envy, rivalries, lies, injustices break out. Then, when evil seems to have the last word, he turns the cards.
Yet the impression that he is asleep remains. With our cries of prayers, we would like to wake him up and force him to intervene. But he is already awake. It’s just that he has a different vision of the danger and knows how to deal with it. He asks for our unconditional trust. Yes we are tossed about by the waves of the sea, but even if we do not realize it, we are accompanied by him.

 

Video available on Youtube : Do you still have no faith?