Who then is this?
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
- Mark 4: 35 - 41
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for June 23, 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Who then is this?
Have you ever, or are you currently facing some challenge or difficulty in your life right now, because you have said yes to Jesus, and are trying to follow Him as one of His disciples?
In today’s Gospel, Jesus invites His disciples to come with him on a journey, in this case, a boat trip: “Let us go to across to the other side.”
They probably thought the point of the trip was to go across to the other side – and in one sense, it was. But as we can see, there was something else that Jesus wanted to show them on this journey – it was an invitation for them to come to know in a deeper way who He is: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
The answer of course, posed by our first reading, is that Jesus is more than their “Teacher”, He is also the Lord, God, who answered Job out of the whirlwind in our first reading, who even the wind and the sea obey.
Our vocation is just like the disciple’s journey in the boat. Jesus has invited you on a journey with Him – and yes, the point is to go across to the other side, to complete the course of your earthly life. But there is also something Jesus wants to show you on this journey – to come to know who He is in a deeper way, so that you too can be filled with great awe, and wonder: “Who then is this?” How have you come to know who Jesus is through past storms in your life? How about current ones?
“Life according to the vows helps us to develop as persons and to attain Christian maturity. The vows are the expression of the free and total gift of ourselves to God. We accept the detachment implied in the observance of our vows in order to become more firmly attached to Christ. For his sake I have forfeited everything; I have accounted all else rubbish so that Christ may be my wealth and I may be in him ... I wish to know Christ and the power flowing from his resurrection; (Philippians 3:8-11)”