Joke: A clergyman walking down a country lane and sees a young farmer struggling to load hay back onto a cart after it had fallen off. "You look hot, my son," said the cleric. "Why don't you rest a moment, and I'll give you a hand." "No thanks," said the young man. "My father wouldn't like it." "Don't be silly," the minister said. "Everyone is entitled to a break. Come and have a drink of water." Again the young man protested that his father would be upset. Losing his patience, the clergyman said, "Your father must be a real slave driver. Tell me where I can find him and I'll give him a piece of my mind!" "Well," replied the young farmer, "he's under the load of hay."

In all today’s readings, the Church helps us to understand more of the heart of God, the Father, and the love of his Son Jesus Christ. What Job and Jesus’ disciples experienced, we can identify them with the storms of our lives.

In today’s first reading, taken from the book of Job, he was faithful and fearful of the Lord, yet he had to face tribulation after tribulation. He lost his wife, his children, and his property he lost everything except his flesh. Job demanded an answer, and God answered him not by justifying his actions why he allowed Satan to take away his everything except himself, but by referring to his omniscience and almighty power that God responded to Job out of the storm saying, “Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands? When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door, and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!” God is everywhere and his almighty hands set limits of everything in the universe. Do we believe that God is everywhere and his almighty hands protect us even at times of tribulation after tribulation? Do we still have faith in him and believe that he hears us and does not ignore us even though we pray and pray, and he might seem to be absent? With all the tribulations that Job experienced but still believed in God, who had a right to bring him into existence and he had the right to take away everything he had, have we still had faith in the Lord when we have to face difficulty after difficulty, challenge after challenge?

In today’s Gospel, Saint Mark captures a beautiful picture that portrays a scene where evening comes, and Jesus’ disciples take him into the boat to leave the crowd. When they are in the middle of the water, a violent squall comes up and waves are breaking over the boat, and in that fearful moment, they run to Jesus and say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” The moment that we are baptized into Christ, the moment that we vest on ourselves Christ just as the disciples have Jesus in the boat with them. Evening comes covers the light, after baptism, we are thrown into this world with all the attractions that offer us somehow cover our eyes to believe in God. Not only does the dark of the night overshadow the disciples, but there is a violent squall and the waves break over the boat that frightens them. Amid that fright, they run to Jesus to ask for help, do we remember to seek God when we see our loved one suffering from a difficult illness and sickness like cancer? When we see our children go astray? When we see our spouse unfaithful to us? When we are disappointed to see someone does not go to Church but has a good life, while we go to Church but have to face challenge after challenge, and many other violent squalls and waves of life hitting us on every corner of our life? After Jesus quiets the wind and calms the waves, he says to his disciples, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” Perhaps, these words of Jesus address every one of us when we have to face tribulation after tribulation, when our faith seems to vanish, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

In today’s second reading, Saint Paul beautifully emphasizes that our lives are not the lives of ourselves, but rather, the moment that we are baptized into Christ, we vest on ourselves the life of Christ. Therefore, whether we live or we die, whether we have a good life or bad life, we belong to the Lord Saint Paul expresses saying that Christ “indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” So, do we live our lives for the sake of ourselves, for our loved ones, or others? Job lived a life for himself, for his wife, his children, his property, and everything, and at the same time, he worshipped the Lord and feared the Lord, but how come he had to lose everything except himself? Jesus’ disciples left everything behind, their spouses, their children, their everything to follow Jesus, but why were they terrified in the dark and at the raging waves? It is the faith that God tested Job, and it is this faith that Jesus’ disciples lacked, how is our faith? Jesus’ disciples physically lived with Jesus and saw him performing miracle after miracle, and yet, still lacked faith in him, how is our faith in someone whom we are not physically living with? May our faith be strengthened by God’s Word, be nurtured by his flesh and blood each time we come up for communion, and be courageous living out our faith by his living presence on our spiritual journey. The decision is yours.