Fr. Roger J. Landry
Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph
Alexandria, South Dakota
Saturday after Ash Wednesday, Extraordinary Form
March 5, 2022
Is 58:9-14, Ps 27:4, Mk 6:47-56
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek,” we pray in today’s gradual with insistence for the second day in a row: “To dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, To gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple.” The deepest desire God has implanted within us is to be with him. Not just to know him. Not just to pay him a visit. But to live together with him in him, to abide in a deep communion of love and life with him, all the days of our life, to gaze on his beauty, to bask in the beauty of his own gaze.
- This prayer comes in the midst of Psalm 27, in which the context is evildoers coming at us to devour flesh, armies encamping against us, wars being waged against us, malicious and lying witnesses rising all around us, family members turning on us, with enemies on every side. In response to it all, we cry out that the Lord is our light, our salvation, and our life’s refuge. We proclaim we don’t have to fear anyone or anything. In the midst of it all, we say, we recognize we can be dwelling with the Lord, not as a means of escape, but precisely to help us in the midst of it all to be courageous and stouthearted, full of trust, in God our Savior. We seek to abide in him, we seek his face, we seek the goodness of the Lord not just later but in the land of the living now, because we know that when we are with him, who is our light, salvation and refuge, we are already experiencing that goodness. We know that even in the midst of darkness, his light shines; even in the midst of danger, his salvation extended and refuge bestowed.
- But this is a truth that God fortifies by experience, because even though we can pray and mean the words of the Psalm, when we are in difficult circumstances our trust can wane and our fears can grow. That’s why God often puts us in circumstances where we cannot but confront our fears and be given the chance to entrust ourselves to him. That’s what happens in the dramatic scene in today’s Gospel, the main elements of which are recapitulated in some way or another in the life of every disciple. Immediately before this scene was the multiplication of the loaves and fish and St. Mark tells us that Jesus had everyone sit down on the green grass, which means that it must have taken place in mid-March to mid-April in the Holy Land, because the grass begins to get scorched by the sun by the end of April. That would mean sunset would have happened about 6 pm, which is the time the apostles got into the boat to begin the journey across the top of the Sea of Galilee, a 5-6 mile trek that should have taken a few hours. The storm began to rage when they were in the middle of the Sea, so about an hour or two along their trek. Jesus came to them in the “fourth watch of the night” — the period stretching from 3-6 am — which meant that by that point, they had been in the boat 9-12 hours, battling a ferocious storm, fatigued, soaking wet and fearing for their life. Jesus was placidly praying on the mountain as they were struggling for hours not to drown to death. Why did Jesus wait so long as his friends were in peril? This scene recalls the other time that they were afraid for their life on the Sea, when Jesus was asleep in the bow of the boat as they thought they were about to perish. In both cases, it was to increase their faith. Jesus was introducing them to a central truth of the spiritual life: that in order to be able to abandon ourselves to God, we must first feel what appears to be total abandonment by That’s when we’re able to make the leap, when all human means are exhausted, when even God even seems to be absent; that’s when we are able to make the act of faith to believe in him even when we can’t hear his voice or see his face.
- After hours of struggling for their lives, Jesus comes walking along the white caps of the churning sea. Their first reaction was to think they were seeing a ghost — after all, no one had ever seen a man walk on water before, not to mention surf waves without a surfboard. There was also a superstition that there were monsters at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee and likely that played into their alarm as well. But Jesus said to them across the howling winds, “Take courage! It is I! Do not be afraid!” Jesus’ actual expression in Greek is, Tharseite, Ego Eimi, mephobeisthe, which means “Take Courage. I am. Do not fear.” I am. That is the way, as we pondered yesterday, God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, what Jesus would use often in his public ministry to point to his divinity, like when he said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” They were words that couldn’t help but instill them with greater confidence than even seeing him walk on water. Their Light, their Salvation, their Life’s Refuge was with them in the midst of the storm. Upon Jesus’ getting in the boat, their fears were quelled almost as quickly as the winds and the seas.
- St. Mark comments, “They were [completely] astounded,” and tells us why: “They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.” They hadn’t grasped the meaning of the miracle in their hearts. Their heads might have been blown away counting the left overs, but it hadn’t penetrated their igneous hearts, such that their hearts had learned the lesson of how much God cared about them, loved them, would provide for them. So often our hearts remain hardened. Despite all of the dramatic events of salvation history, despite all of the incredible miracles God has worked in New Testament times not to mention in our own time, despite what happened in Fatima on October 13, 1917, despite so medically inexplicable events in Lourdes or miracles leading to the beatification and canonization of so many men and women recently lifted to the altars, despite the Eucharist miracles, despite the clear signs of God’s presence in each of our lives in terms of prayers heard and our vocations revealed, our hearts can still remain hardened and slow to understand what it all means. When a crisis emerges, when we find ourselves in a storm, we can still feel abandoned. But these experiences are, in the ultimate analysis, graces that are meant to lead us, like Christ on the Cross, to entrust ourselves to the Father anew. That’s when he will show us, yet again, that he is our light, salvation and refuge. That’s when we can grasp that even in the midst of such circumstances we can still dwell in the Lord’s presence and contemplate his face.
- But we don’t have to wait for such dramatic and harrowing experiences to grow in trust. He gives us opportunities each day. Certainly prayer is the most powerful exercise of this trust when we get beyond the routine and put out into the deep with God. But daily life gives us many opportunities. In the Gospel we see what happened when Jesus and the apostles disembarked. People recognized Jesus and immediately scurried about the surrounding country to bring in the sick on mats to wherever he was, laying the sick in marketplaces and begging that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak. Everyone who touched Jesus was healed. Every day we have the privilege to scurry about to bring people to Jesus, whether in our prayers or physically. We can certainly bring the suffering people of Ukraine to the Lord, but we also need to bring each other. Each time we do is an occasion to grow in trust. But the more the Lord permits us to persevere in prayer, or to persevere in trying to persuade people to come to him, the more that trust can grow.
- But the Lord’s plan is for us also includes us in extending his light, refuge and salvation to others, so that they can more easily see his face and grasp his presence. Part of our trust in God is to trust that he wants us to become like him in the midst of the world. Having received his mercy and love, he wants us to share it. That’s what God is telling us through the Prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading, the continuation of yesterday’s passage in which God was describing the type of fasting he wished. Today he describes that he wants us to hunger to care for the hungry and the afflicted. He wants us to hunger for justice and remove oppression. He wants us to hunger for the truth and eliminate false accusation and malicious speech. He wants us to hunger to dwell in his house together with him all our days and that begins, he says, by following the Lord, rather than our own pursuits, on the Sabbath, delighting in the gift of the Sabbath because it allows us to delight in, worship and be with God. When we begin to live this way, he tells us, then we will become like light rising in the darkness. Then we will experience the Lord’s guidance. Our strength will be renewed. We will become like a watered garden with a spring whose fresh water never runs out. Then we will be called “repairer of the breach” and “restorer of ruined homesteads” because — by what we eliminate and help others to eliminate, and by what we emphasize and help others to emphasize — we will be cooperating with God to bring about reconciliation and to help put families back together. By caring for the hungry, the oppressed and the afflicted, by living in the truth and helping others to do so, we will be agents to help others find God, and in him light, refuge, and salvation, in the midst of a storm.
- At Mass, the Lord grants the one thing we ask. He bring us here to his house, where we can gaze on his beauty. But he does far more. Rather than visiting his temple, he makes us his temple, coming to abide in us. As he does so, he tells us from within,“Take Courage. I am. Do not be afraid of anything.”
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah
Thus says the Lord God: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails. The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; “Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you, “Restorer of ruined homesteads.” If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; If you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable; If you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice — Then you shall delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Gradual
One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life, To gaze on the LORD’s beauty, to visit his temple.
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark
When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore. Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. They had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” He got into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were [completely] astounded. They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened. After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.
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