And sending away the multitude, they take him even as he was in the ship: and there were other ships with him. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him, Master, doth it not concern thee that we perish? And ising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm. And he said to them: Why are you fearful? have you not faith yet? And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: Who is this (thinkest thou) that both wind and sea obey him?
(I use the Douay-Rheims b/c it's out of copyright, like, since ever. Please note that the American Bishops forbid quoting the NAB-RE at all, even a little bit. "Read the Bible!" - but pay for it.)
This morning I'm led to say to all Catholics: WAKE JESUS UP, PEOPLE! We hesitate to do this. "He'll scold us! We'll be rebuked!!"
So what? WE ARE PERISHING! The waves of modernism and stupid wayward bishops and confused priests are lapping up over the boat, and we can't bail fast enough.
We do have Jesus on a cushion in the back of the boat, don't we? We tend to take comfort in daily life and we don't see him as real, walking with us. We let him sleep - "You rest, we'll take care of it."
I'm a codependent. I would never wake up someone who was sleeping unless I absolutely had to, preferably by pre-arrangement. I've known people who have no compunction doing so... "hey, wake up!" If I'd dared to do that, the rage would have been off the charts. "How dare you?!" One of my earliest memories is of being soundly rebuked for calling from my crib when I didn't really need anything.
So I imagine that the apostles felt like that. They knew he'd rebuke them. "Oh ye of little faith!" They heard that a lot! But this time they were about to drown, and he was asleep!
So they woke him up. And he stood up in the boat and spoke a word to the sea and the wind...
... and there was a great calm.
And then he lit into them. "Why are you fearful? have you not faith yet?"
Did they even notice the rebuke? They were utterly in awe.
Maybe we need to risk it. If we wake him up, and he scolds, we should say: "Jesus, we DO have faith. We also know our limitations. We are NOT YOU. We are only the image and likeness of God, not God himself! We are perishing. Wake up and save your church! We have absolute faith that YOU can save YOUR CHURCH. Wake up and DO IT!"
We can also pray to our Blessed Mother, on this anniversary of her appearance at Fatima, and ask her to give him a nudge, too. "Mother, we remember what happened at Cana. You pointed out the problem, but he said it wasn't time! You put him on the spot anyway, and he came through! Mother, help us!" (John 2:1-11)
We are showing faith when we do this. We cannot fix it ourselves. Sitting around and wringing our hands and talking about it and comforting ourselves with prayers, not quite sure if he really wants us to suffer, etc. is childish. There are very serious opponents, who want us faithless and dead, installed at every level in the only organization that counts on this earth.
Stand up (or straighten up as you kneel) and wake him up! Yell at him in prayer (even if it must be silently) and tell him we're perishing.
I'd rather have him scold me, than put up with the demons infesting the Church. How about you?
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