@IBGDRGN Wild: Stories about Jesus - Mark 4:35-41 https://t.co/UQfJmwKnIS ✝️🙃❤️💗💕💝 pic.twitter.com/NagbvGpCxo— Anna.Maria.Trúc (@carrietruc0405) January 27, 2018
In the Second Book of Samuel, Nathan confronts David with the consequences of his evil doing in the lives of Uriah and Bathsheba.
* [12:1–7] David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged the death of her husband. Instead of directly indicting the king for this criminal abuse of his royal authority, the prophet Nathan tells David a story. In the story, a parable of David’s own actions, a powerful man takes cruel advantage of his vulnerable neighbor. Hearing the story, David is outraged and denounces the rich man—thus unwittingly pronouncing judgment on himself (“You are the man,” v. 7).The Gospel of Mark tells of Jesus nature miracle to bring calm to the Sea in which the disciples feared they would perish.
* [4:41] Jesus is here depicted as exercising power over wind and sea. In the Christian community this event was seen as a sign of Jesus’ saving presence amid persecutions that threatened its existence.Amy Hoover invites us to consider what habits, what things do we do, that are really rooted in fear?
Today I invite us to notice throughout the day, what habits, what things do we do, that are really rooted in fear? Then remember to have faith, not faith that the situation will turn out how we want it to, but faith that God will be with us regardless.Don Schwager offers a comparison, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D, of our interpersonal conflicts to the storm in the Gospel.
"When you have to listen to abuse, that means you are being buffeted by the wind. When your anger is roused, you are being tossed by the waves. So when the winds blow and the waves mount high, the boat is in danger, your heart is imperiled, your heart is taking a battering. On hearing yourself insulted, you long to retaliate; but the joy of revenge brings with it another kind of misfortune - shipwreck. Why is this? Because Christ is asleep in you. What do I mean? I mean you have forgotten his presence. Rouse him, then; remember him, let him keep watch within you, pay heed to him... A temptation arises: it is the wind. It disturbs you: it is the surging of the sea. This is the moment to awaken Christ and let him remind you of those words: 'Who can this be? Even the winds and the sea obey him." (excerpt from Sermons 63:1-3)Friar Jude Winkler provides background to the difference in the mistakes made by David and those of Saul. The understanding of the sea as a reservoir of evil in Hebrew thought makes a double miracle in the Gospel of Mark.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, offers the Orthodox prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.” as our contemplation of Jesus who calms our storms.
Mercy: We need the “salvation” of Love to overcome our fear-based disconnection, to return us to wholeness. Abundant, never withheld, restorative grace brings us back into intimacy with self, God, and others. Pope Francis says that mercy is the highest virtue in the hierarchy of Christian truths.
The anxiety of being caught unprepared or the fear that we will be overwhelmed by temptations to self satisfaction invoke a fear response that is in conflict with the Love that the mercy of God continuously offers to us.
References
(n.d.). 2 Samuel, chapter 12 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 27, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/2samuel/12
(n.d.). Mark, chapter 4 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 27, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/4
(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved January 27, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved January 27, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved January 27, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/
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