A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Mark. This follows the readings we've been having for the last few days, and it's the multiplication of the loaves and fish which which we had yesterday. This follows right after. After the 5,000 men were satiated, meaning they had enough to eat, Jesus insisted that his disciples get into the boat, notice into the boat, and proceed him to the other side toward Bethsaida. See, they're on the eastern shore of the lake.
They're going to go to the western shore. And he asked them to do that while he alone, dismissed the crowd. When Jesus had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain by himself to pray. As evening drew on, the boat, that is with the disciples in it, was far out on the lake while Jesus was alone on the land. Then seeing them tossed about as they tried to row with the wind against them, Jesus came walking toward them on the water.
The time was between three and six in the morning. Jesus meant to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought it was a ghost, and they began to cry out. They had all seen it and were terrified. Jesus hastened to reassure them, get hold of yourselves.
I like that. It is I. Do not be afraid. Jesus got into the boat with them and the wind died down. The disciples were taken aback by what had happened for they had not understood about the loaves.
Very curious. On the contrary now listen. On the contrary, their minds were completely closed to the meaning of the events. And this is the gospel of the lord. Praise to you, lord Jesus Christ.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. We often think we can't help but thinking how dumb, plain dumb, these disciples of Jesus were. Now this isn't the first time, and it's not the only time, where we have this very significant, to me, very puzzling sentence, you know, that their minds were closed or they didn't understand or or words to that effect. You see, they did not understand scarcely anything until after the resurrection. Just keep that in mind.
And what they thought they understood before it was almost all wrong. Now, it's very curious the way these we have three very important miracles here. Not just today, but they come one after the other. And you have the multiplication of the loaves and fish, you have Jesus walking on the water, and then you have the the pacification of the winds. Now remember, you're talking about waterman.
The disciples in the boat, they knew their lake, and they knew very well that unless you were pretty tight at the end of the day, you didn't see people walking on the water. And to have a man step off of the water into your boat, and then to have the wind drop almost suddenly, and then find yourself ashore, as we know from another text. You see, they they were completely puzzled by it, and who in the world wouldn't be? These men knew nature. They were used to working with nature.
They knew what it was to to row about it, and and, you know, the lake isn't a million miles wide, but it can get very rough. Because you have wind coming down from the north right in a funnel, and it can get extremely rough with these short deep waves. And But they were accustomed to that. It wasn't nothing unusual. And some time ago I figured out some time intervals and they must have had very tough going.
But if you've ever tried to row a heavy boat, remember these were not fiberglass hulls. If you've ever tried to row a heavy boat with very heavy oars against a strong headwind, you will know what backbreaking work it is and how frustrating. You seem to be going backwards all the time. Now these men were well acquainted with those that sort of thing. Now here they see their companion Jesus walking on the water, and, look, they were terrified.
Why were they terrified? The point I wanna make, and that's all I have because it's is this, we often think, if only we were close to Jesus, if only we could have seen him. Supposing we had been there and seen the multiplication of loaves and fish, 5,000 men fed with with five loaves and two fish. And then, at just a few hours later, we see him walking on the lake. And then all of a sudden the wind dies.
If only we could have seen those, we would be so utterly convinced. Well, all I can say is how do you know you would have been? Because there were plenty of people around him who weren't, including his some of those closest to him, namely his disciples. They they they began to understand that he had extraordinary powers and all of that, But it wasn't until after the resurrection that they began to have a glimmer of an insight into the great simple truth that Jesus' kingdom was not of this world. That he did not come to restore the kingdom of Israel back to its supremacy on the heights of Jerusalem and kick those intruders, those Romans out.
Faith is a very delicate thing. Now, there's nothing I say this with a certain amount of information. There's nothing been written comparable to Newman's Grammar of Ascent. It's a deadly title. No one reads it anymore.
It was written at the end of the nineteenth century. But there's no one who has analyzed this whatever this this psychological phenomenon, because it certainly is a phenomenon that we call faith or whatever however you mean whatever meaning you give to it. Because there's where we get into trouble. One thing you surely can say about it, it is very delicate. It is very mysterious, even in the human order.
And when you get into the supernatural order, then we are told it's a gift. You can't manufacture. We're not the allegiance. Although, there are plenty of people acting that way today. That any that that faith is a gift that comes from God Almighty.
Now, as soon as I say that I know immediately the the the serious problems this raises. Because if it's a gift from God, why doesn't he give it to everybody for heaven's sakes, if it's such a wonderful thing? I know I realize there are tremendous problems here. I realize that. And good serious men and women have faced them, and they've come to different answers.
Take for example Calvin. This was the great problem with Calvin. So, anyway, we come back to this thing. If we'd have been in the boat, and we if we had seen Jesus just a few hours before feeding that multitude of people, and now we see the man walking on the water, and remember these were being tossed about by a very strong headwind, what would been our reaction? We're told here the disciples was terrified.
I don't know what the Greek is, but that's a pretty strong word, terrified. And they thought they were seeing a ghost. Well, you know, that's exactly what we often think we're seeing ghosts. Because it's it's as I said, Christmas day, recognize Jesus Christ in our lives. There's the problem.
It's not easy. It's not easy at all. Sometimes it is, of course. Especially when what we think is God's will happens to be what we want too, then it's easy to see it. But when things go adversely, when all sorts of tragedies and all kinds of things hit us, and good things too.
But it's so much easier to see Jesus in the good things than it is to see his hand outstretched lovingly in the bad that we call bad. And so there's my point. Being close to Jesus in the physical sense of the disciples, that didn't answer the problem. At the at the at this time in their lives, they weren't as close to understanding Jesus Christ as we are by a long shot. By a long shot.
So mere proximity doesn't that's not the answer. And people can live under the same roof, you know, and scarcely know each other. How well we know that. And so, to me, what this means is we've got to pray that we recognize Jesus in the storms, that we that we don't make the grievous mistake of thinking we're seeing a ghost when in fact it's the son of God. In the name of the father and the son, holy spirit, amen.