January 06, 2016 Wednesday, After Epiphany 1st Reading: 1 Jn 4:11–18 Gospel:Mk6:45–52
After the five thousand men were satiated, Jesus obliged his disciples to get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, towards Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away. And having sent the people off, he went by himself to the hillside to pray. When evening came, the boat was far out on the lake while he was alone on the land. Jesus saw his disciples straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, and before daybreak he came to them walking on the lake; and he was going to pass them by.
When they saw him walking on the lake, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But at once he called to them, “Courage! It’s me; don’t be afraid.” Then Jesus got into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were completely astonished, for they had not really grasped the fact of the loaves; their minds were dull.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus came to the rescue of the disciples who felt helpless over the storm that battered their fishing boat. Surprisingly, instead of feeling secure and rejoicing over Jesus’ intervention, they panicked in fear because they took Jesus for a ghost.
Their reaction measured the quality of their experience with their Master. The Gospel tells us that prior to the experience described in today’s Gospel reading, they had seen their Master multiply loaves to feed a multitude.Although a person walking over rough waters during a storm is not a normal phenomenon, their experience of Jesus’ miraculous powers makes it ridiculous that they should do the childish thing of taking Jesus for a ghost.
Like the disciples we fail to recognize the Lord’s intervention for two reasons. One is fear and the other is the overwhelming impression that our problem is bigger than our God. The first is a matter of trust. Jesus had already told us that “fear is useless, what is needed is trust”. The second is a matter of faith. A wonderful poster had this inspiring caption in bold letters: Don’t say ‘Hey God, I have a big problem’ but say instead ‘Hey problem, I have a big God’.
Both reasons boil down to one’s shallow experience of Jesus. What happened to the disciples is worth reflecting. Although Jesus was walking over the very turbulent waters they were afraid of, they were not expecting Jesus to be on top of their fears because their knowledge of Him was skin-deep. Deeper knowledge of Jesus will empower one to exclaim: I am not afraid, for it is the Lord walking over my turbulent problems! –Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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