“WHY ARE YOU TERRIFIED?”

AIM: To deepen the hearers’ faith.

Some years ago a British actor achieved great success with a one-man show entitled, The Gospel according to Mark. Standing on a bare stage, without costumes or props, and using only the simplest gestures and his voice for dramatic effect, the actor recited by memory the whole of Mark’s gospel. Audiences on both sides of the Atlantic remained fascinated for over two hours.

An important ingredient in this success was the actor’s skill. At least as important, however, was the text itself. Mark’s gospel, the shortest and seemingly the simplest of the four, is a work of great artistry. From the many different stories, sayings, and incidents in the life of Jesus preserved orally in the Christian community to which Mark belonged, he compiled a unified narrative of great dramatic power. Reading the gospel in bits and pieces, as we do in church, we mostly fail to appreciate Mark’s achievement. Today’s gospel reading is a good example.

It begins: “On that day, as evening drew on …” The day, in Mark’s description, had begun with Jesus teaching people by the lake shore. To avoid being overwhelmed by the crowd, and so that the people could all see and hear him, Jesus got into a boat and put out a short distance from shore. Standing or seated in the boat, he told several parables, including the familiar story of the sower and the seed. Mark concludes this section by indicating, in the passage immediately preceding today’s gospel reading, that what he has just recorded was typical of Jesus’ teaching.  “By means of many such parables he taught them the message in a way they could understand. To them he spoke only by way of parable, while he kept explaining things privately to his disciples” (4:33f). What follows in our gospel reading was intended by Mark as a continuation of Jesus’ private explanation to his disciples: in deeds this time rather than in words.

These explanatory deeds begin, as we have just heard, with Jesus sound asleep in the boat, in the middle of a storm – the only place in the four gospels, incidentally, where we see Jesus sleeping. It was the sleep of exhaustion after a busy day. But it was also the tranquil rest of the only man in that boat who had no reason for fear amid the elemental forces of nature.

Though the disciples were experienced seamen, Mark says nothing about any measure to ensure the safety of the vessel and her crew. Instead these seasoned fishermen turn in panic to their sleeping master, who unlike them was no sailor, with the reproachful question: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Without a word of reply, Jesus acts. In language identical to that already used in chapter one of his gospel to describe a healing at Capernaum (1:25), Mark writes: “He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, >Quiet!  Be still!’“ Jesus has already shown that he has power over illness. Now he shows that he rules wind and wave as well.

Repeatedly the scriptures of Jesus’ people ascribe this power to God alone.  Today’s readings contain two examples. In the first reading God challenges Job with a question about God’s work in creation: “Who shut within doors the sea … and said: Thus far shall you come and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!” The responsorial psalm is similar. Recounting a scene of mariners in distress, the psalmist offers what could be a commentary on today’s gospel: “They cried to the Lord in their distress; from their straits he rescued them, he hushed the storm to a gentle breeze, and the billows of the sea were stilled.”

Mark says the same in the gospel: Jesus “woke up, rebuked the wind … The wind ceased and there was great calm.”  It was more than the stillness of nature.  There was an eerie calm in the boat as well, as Jesus’ disciples looked at each other in amazement, each formulating the same question: “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” Remember: their scriptures told them that only God could do what they had just seen Jesus do.

The first to break the silence is Jesus.  In this story which consists almost entirely of questions, it is now his turn. “Why are you terrified?” Jesus asks. “Do you not yet have faith?” Mark wants us, his readers, to hear Jesus putting these questions not only to his friends in that boat, but to all his friends, ourselves included.
From the earliest times Christians have compared the Church to a ship. Like the ark, which rescued Noah and his family from the great flood, the Church preserves us from the flood of danger and evil in the world. Time and again, however, our ship is buffeted by storms. The weekend after next I am going to talk to you about the storm that is threatening the Church in our country now: a rising tide of statements and actions by government leaders and bureaucrats limiting the religious freedom guaranteed in our Constitution. In response the American bishops have proclaimed a Fortnight for Freedom. It starts today, two days after the Church’s commemoration of two martyrs for religious freedom: the English saints Thomas More, a married man and father, and the bishop and cardinal John Fisher, the only cardinal in history to suffer martyrdom. They gave their lives in 1535, on June 22^nd and July 6^th respectively, in protest against the claim of the English King Henry VIII that he and not the Pope was entitled to govern the Church in England. The fortnight for Freedom will conclude, appropriately, on the Fourth of July, when we celebrate our noble Declaration of Independence.

Whenever storms assault the Church, it is easy to think that the Lord is absent – or at least indifferent. Like those first friends of Jesus in the storm on the lake, we cry out in fear. At the proper time – which is God’s time, not ours – the Lord banishes the danger, and with it our cause for fear. Having done so, he challenges us with the insistent question: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

The answering question of Jesus’ disciples, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” is a pre-Easter question. Jesus friends in that boat had not yet seen the risen Lord. We, who here encounter the risen Lord in his holy word, and in the sacrament of his body and blood, have an advantage over the men in that boat.  We know him better than they did. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, is our elder brother, and our best friend. Yet he is also God’s Son. If Jesus could demand faith of those friends of his in the boat, who knew him only as one like themselves, how much more can he demand this same faith – trust – of us who also know him as one unlike ourselves.

“Do you not yet have faith?” Jesus asks us. What better response could we give than the cry of another friend of Jesus in this gospel according to Mark: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”  (Mark 9:4)

 

Many of us have had that recurring nightmare where we’re standing in front of an audience about to give a speech when we realise we’re naked. It is one that wakes us up in a sweat and one that we hope we will not encounter as we go to sleep. It seems then that we all harbour a certain fear of being naked, and by definition it leaves us exposed and on display.

However this fear is much worse for some than for others. While only the largest exhibitionist would feel confident to run around in public completely nude, we should all feel able to be naked with our partners and to let them see us in our entirety in private. Unfortunately the case and for some people, being naked is literally terrifying. If that describes you, then there is a large chance that it is getting in the way of your intimate relationships and could even be putting a strain on your sex life. Some people can not even get changed in public changing rooms and feel they have to hide away from even their own children – which runs the risk of passing the irrational fear on to them.

We were all born naked and once that was the way we lived back in the wild. However in modern society we are taught to cover up, and this conditions us to learn that naked = bad. Thus it can feel very unnatural for others to see us un-garbed. At the same time images in the media of scantily clad men and women with firm abs and air brushed fat lead us to feel dissatisfied with our own bodies which often pale in comparison simply due to the fact that they are real. This is of course exacerbated for those of us who have certain experiences that have made us more insecure about the shapes of our body – perhaps someone has laughed at us while we were naked, or made a harsh comment – and for those who are particularly put off by the site of themselves naked, those who are overweight, or perhaps those who have some kind of irregularity about their body (such as an overt scar or birth mark).

If this is the case then it might have reached almost phobic-like severity which makes it important that you address the issue. To go about this you need to change the way you are thinking in order to regain perspective on the situation. You might for example find that when getting changed in public changing rooms you feel as though everyone is looking at you and judging you. This is an irrational thought as most people in the changing room will simply be focussing on getting themselves changed – probably also feeling insecure. Furthermore, even if they were judging you, why would it matter? You would never see them again.

Likewise for bedroom scenarios you might be thinking that your partner will be instantly repulsed and leave you upon seeing you naked. Again though this is an irrational fear – already they must have a fairly strong idea of what you look like underneath from your clothes and your arms etc. Similarly, if they have been with you for a fairly long amount of time then they certainly are not going to leave you because you are a bit fatter than you thought. Chances are they are more likely to get unhappy about not being able to see their partner naked which will inevitably diminish the romance and sexual chemistry in the relationship.
What you need to do then is to think about the contents of your own thoughts and how they might be irrational. You then need to replace these damaging and negative false beliefs with the new ones. Rather than repeating ‘they are all looking at me’ to yourself in the shower room then, start repeating ‘I do not care what they think’ or ‘they are too busy washing themselves to care what I look like’.

If you struggle to do this yourself then you can get help from therapy. This form of therapy, where you consciously try to change the contents of your thoughts and to eradicate negative thoughts and beliefs is called ‘CBT’ or ‘Cognitive Behavioural Therapy’. Here you will be taught to be ‘mindful’ and to observe the contents of your own mind, while at the same time learning how you can replace your thoughts with newer healthier ones.