Homily
for June 25, 2006
Liturgical Year B - Cycle II 12th
Sunday in Ordinary Time by
Fr. John Carney Topic:
Carpe Diem + + +
Gospel Mk 4:35 - 41
On
that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: “Let us
cross to the
other side.”Leaving the crowd, they
took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.And
other boats were with him.A violent
squall came up and waves were
breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do
you not care that we are perishing?”He
woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet!Be still!”The wind ceased and there was great calm.Then
he asked them, “Why are you terrified?Do
you not yet have faith?”They were filled
with great awe and said to
one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We’ve
all heard this miracle story before where Jesus calms
the water. This particular miracle probably
meant a lot to the Jewish listener perhaps more than it means to us
because to
the Jews and to the Hebrew people before them, to say the least, they
were not
a seafaring people. They saw water as
pure danger and chaos. In fact, in the
beginning when God created, He created out of the chaos of the
water. They saw water as a place of danger, of
monsters, and had no liking for it whatsoever.
And so they said, “What kind of man is this? He can even calm the
waters”. In other words: “He is divine. He can bring order
out of the chaos of the
waters”. This
story is important to you and to me because it offers a
parable and teaches us some lessons. The
first question we might have is: Why did the disciples go out on those
rough
seas? Of course, the answer is that
Jesus told them to go. I think there is
a lesson for us and that is to seize the opportunity when it presents
itself. Jesus, perhaps, didn’t have much
time. He needed to move on. His public ministry only lasted
three years. He couldn’t wait around for everything to be
in place before he took each step in his life and in his ministries and
neither
can we. If we follow Christ and if we
love like Christ then we should not be overly tentative, overly
deliberate
careful people. The very fact that one
loves shows a certain emotion and a certain zeal and that’s the way we
are to
live our lives. Not wait for all the
stars to be aligned before we make every decision.
I
love the expression, in Latin, “Carpe Diem”, “to seize the
day”, because, you know, you may not get another opportunity. To
be a Christian is to live life with certain
courage and even a certain daring. Even
in our life’s decisions, in marriage, or in vocation or in having
children,
some people want to wait until the moment is just perfect. That
moment may never come if you wait. I always smile at families who
have raised
eight or ten kids and they look back and they say, “I don’t know how we
did
it. I have no idea. We didn’t know anything. We had
no money. We were stupid. We couldn’t figure anything
out. We didn’t have the greatest employment.” “How are the
kids doing?” “They’re doing great. They’re doing
wonderful.”
It
is the same thing with marriage. Some years ago, there
was a couple setting a marriage date who kept changing the date.
The groom was getting cold feet. So I called them in and said,
“What’s the
problem?” The bride was devastated, you
know, as you could understand. He says,
“Well, although I think I love her, who knows, next week I may love
someone
more.” I said, “Go ahead, slug him. That’s not a sin.
You could smack this guy”. If you wait for the perfect mate
you’ll never
find her or him. As a matter of fact,
all of you people who are married already know that. That’s not
how it works.
In
vocations: When I was vocation director I pulled my hair
out at guys who would say, “Well, I’m discerning my call to the
priesthood.” I said, “You’ll be
discerning until you’re eighty years old.
When are you going to make a decision and do something? Get
something accomplished in life.” If
we are Christ’s followers we need to go when He calls us
not when we are ready to follow. Secondly,
I think this story can teach us and it is clear
that the lesson is to trust God. Jesus
says, “Why are you terrified? Do you not
have faith?” The disciples didn’t need a
bigger boat. They needed a deeper faith. Trust in God and
do not be afraid. St. Gertrude The Great, in her diary says
that Jesus told her this and I believe she heard His voice. Jesus
says, “Though I look with kindness on
all that is done for my glory, like prayers and fasts and acts of
piety, yet
the confidence with which my elect have recourse to me touches me more
deeply.” I think we understand that.
How
do you feel when someone has faith in you and trusts
you, someone you love? So conversely:
How do you feel when someone you love doesn’t trust you, doesn’t have
faith in
you? How do you think God feels? We are built like Him, you
know. We’re made in His image in that regard. The question
is, and I say this to people all
the time and hope it makes sense: How many years do you have
left? Now some people here the answer would be
eighty or ninety, others a few years less than that. But how many
years do you have left? How do you want to live them? Do
you want to live them in a tentative,
neurotic careful way or do you want to live them boldly with courage,
by
seizing the day and the opportunity to love.
We
all have so many days, so many years left and I think
Jesus calls us to live those years by seizing every chance to
love. If we can get that message from this great
miracle story, we will all be blessed today.