Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
«Master, don't you care if we sink?»
Today —in these days of «stormy weather»— we find the Gospel being held up to questioning. Humanity has gone through dramas which, like violent waves, have broken over individuals and entire peoples, particularly during the 20th century and the troubles of the 21st. Sometimes we can't help but ask «Master, don't you care if we sink?» (Mk 4,38); If You really do exist, if You are our Father, how can these things happen?
Before the horror of the memory of the concentration camps of the Second World War Pope Benedict asks «Where was God when this was happening, Why did He stay silent? How could He tolerate such excessive destruction?». It was a question that the people of Israel asked in the Old Testament: «Why are you asleep? (…) Why do you hide your face from us and forget about our plight?».
God will not answer those questions: of him we can ask everything except why; we have no right to demand explanations. In fact, God is there and is talking; the problem is us, because we do not put ourselves in his presence and therefore cannot hear his voice. «We cannot decipher God's secret —says Pope Benedict XI—. We can only see fragments of it and are in the wrong if what we are trying is to become judges of God and History. As such we would not be defending humanity, but rather would be contributing to its destruction».
Therefore, the problem is not whether God exists or is here with us or not. The problem is that we live as if He didn't exist. Here is God's answer: «Why are you so afraid? How can you not have faith?» (Mc 4,40). This Jesus said that to His disciples; He also said it to Saint Faustina Kowalska: «My daughter, do not be afraid, I am always with you even when it looks as though I am not».
Let us not ask him questions, but rather let us pray and accept His will and... then there will be less dramas, and, amazed, we will say «Who is he whom even the wind and the sea obey him?» (Mc 4,41) —Jesus, I put all my trust in you!