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?”
In his public ministry, Jesus often used images to help his listeners come to understand the inner meaning of the Good News that he came to proclaim. The Kingdom of God was compared to a mustard seed that in time would grown into a great tree.
The Church, imitating this penchant of the Lord, continues to use images to help us explore and unpack the mystery of its inner meaning. The Church as the ‘barque of Peter’ sailing on the seas of life was a favorite image inspired by the Scriptures themselves that is both ancient as relevant today.
There is no question that within the history of the ‘barque of Peter,’ that ship has encountered turbulent seas. From the early controversies surrounding the pondering of the question: “Who is this Christ?’ onward to the Reformation controversies to our present-day crisis with the abhorrent sexual abuse crisis on the party of the clergy, the bark of the Church has not been impervious to storms and headwinds.
This past week we have witnessed, once again, the barque of Peter tossed by the headwinds of controversy as the Bishops in the United Stated debated the merits of moving forward with drafting a document on the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the Church. While that topic appears to be relatively uncontroversial, it is the element of ‘worthiness’ for the reception of communion, especially among political leaders who profess to be Catholic yet are faced with the conundrum of living and leading in a pluralistic country whose legal structures support laws that are contrary to the ethical teachings of our Church – that has raised tension and controversy.
While Rome has cautioned the bishops to tread lightly and go slowly, urging consultation with other Episcopal Conferences around the world, least the unity that the Lord desires for his Church is compromised by an expedient desire to ‘build walls of exclusion’ in the name of orthodoxy rather than ‘bridges of understanding, mercy and forgiveness,’ undoubtedly much ink will be spilled by commentators as the document is eventually written and debated.
While the headwinds of controversy are not new for the Body of Christ, they are, nevertheless, unsettling as we continue to strive to be that presence of the living Christ to a world that is fractured by so much hate, anger and recrimination.
That is why we need to hear the words of Christ, anew, with fresh ears and heart:
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?”
My friends, to this Christ who holds even the tensions and controversies of the present moment in his hands, let us surrender our trust and confidence to him – “Who…even wind and sea obey!”