Fear is a strange thing. Our fears affect our every day lives. We fear embarrassment and so we exaggerate or lie in order to avoid being embarrassed. In fear of angering a friend, sometimes we fail to give him/her the advice that we know he/she needs. We fear being criticized, and so we are hesitant to present our ideas to others. In extreme cases, people have such great fear that they take their own lives.
No one wants to live a life of fear. This week's Gospel speaks of fear and how to overcome it. Would you like to know how to overcome fear? Read this brief gospel.
Gospel
Mk 4:35-41
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:
"Let us cross to the other side."
Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.
And other boats were with him.
A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"
He woke up,
rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!"
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?"
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
"Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"
The disciples were lifetime fishermen. A squall came up that was so violent that the disciples were TERRIFIED. This squall, which was violent enough to TERRIFY professional fishermen, must have been pretty serious. When they awoke Jesus, he sad to them, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?". In these few words, Jesus suggests that if they DID have faith, they would not be terrified.
Jesus says here that fear comes from lack of faith. How does lack of faith make us afraid? Why don't we have faith? How do we get faith and how do we hold on to it? Before we answer these questions, we must see what/who controls everything.
The Power of God
Most people understand the power that water has. For instance, in hurricanes it is flooding (water) that causes most of the deaths. Over 100,000 people were killed in the 2004 Tsunamis in Asia. Yet ironically, water is also necessary for life to be sustained. In the Gospel and in the first reading, God makes it quite clear that he has power over water and in doing so, he communicates to us that it is HE who has power over all things including life and death.
The disciples knew that Jesus was powerful. After all, Jesus had already cured many people at this point in the Gospel of Mark. He had also showed that he had power over demons and even the power to forgive sins. It was a known fact among Jews that only God could forgive sins.1
Doubt
And so, perhaps it was not Jesus' power that they doubted, but rather Jesus' concern for them. After all, the disciples accuse him of not caring when they ask," do you not CARE that we are perishing?" We Christians do the exact same thing today. Terrible things happen including the deaths of our loved ones and because we can't see God, we ask "do you not care Lord? Where is God? (perhaps he is asleep?)"
But our Christian faith tells us that "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company."2 We often doubt God during hard times and wonder just as the disciples wondered about Jesus saying, "is he going to help us?" Our faith replies, "of course God is going to help us! God CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN SPECIFICALLY TO HELP US!"
This is a great of example of how lack of faith creates fear. If we truly believed what our faith professes, namely that God loves us and wants to save us, then there is NOTHING to fear. Our faith assures us that God cares about us. And not only does he care, he has the power to help us. Our faith says that God has power over life and death. That's what he is expressing to both Job and the disciples in this week's readings.
How Lack of Faith Creates Fear
The Catechism says that in faith, we believe EVERYTHING that God has revealed to us.3What has God revealed to us and how does this relate to fear? Let's use the Apostle's Creed as a guide to our faith:
* "For us men and our salvation he came down from heaven"- If we do not believe these words, then we believe that we are alone. Or else we believe that God does not "care" about our salvation. And where does that leave us? It leaves us alone and AFRAID. We must believe our faith and our fear will subside.
* "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead"- Remember how we fear embarrassment and being criticized? Our faith tells us that God will come in glory as our judge. If God is our judge, why the heck should we fear the criticism and judgment of others? We shouldn't! God is our judge, we needn't fear the judgment of men. Our faith in God protects us from this irrational fear.
* "We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins". Did you ever notice how everyone hates to see themselves on camera? Most of us are afraid of others seeing us on camera. But even greater than that this fear is the fear that others might find out the terrible things we have done. Would we not be terrified if everyone knew our darkest secrets and sins? Our faith tells us that the only real judge that exists offers the forgiveness of sins. Our faith tells us that our sins can be forgiven. God himself offers us forgiveness of our sins and so again our faith shows us that there is nothing to fear. If we DON'T believe this, we remain afraid.
And so, if our faith (which is a gift from God) wipes away our fears, then why are we still afraid? We are afraid to the extent that we do not believe what our faith professes. Our faith is a gift from God. Just like any gift that a person gives, it can be rejected by the recipient. The reason we are afraid is because we reject our faith which is a gift from God.
As Catholics, we believe that we can sin against our faith. As Paul says in 1st Timothy 1:18-19 "Some, by rejecting conscience, have made a shipwreck of their faith." Each time we sin, we profess to God that WE DO NOT BELIEVE. Again, we reject our faith by sinning. The next time I am about to commit a sin, I should ask myself, "do I really want to do this? My faith gives me courage. While this sin will only bring me fear. I would rather do the right thing and stay close to God, my protector"
There is great news ahead...faith. But,how can we get it?
Faith
Through our baptisms, we have been given faith. We already have it! We are afraid because through sin, we have rejected our faith. The solutions is extremely simple- we must say sorry to God NOW. We must stop sinning now! We will sin again. Every time we do sin, we must say sorry to God and return to him. And therein lies the ultimate solution to fear-remaining with God. Remember that God is all powerful. He loves us. Without him, we are so very AFRAID. We must stick with God. We can stick with him (have him in our boat) by obeying his commandments. In obeying the commandments, we profess WITH OUR ACTIONS that we believe. And what does our faith do? It wipes away fear. Isn't that what we want?
The Catechism offers us practical advice about faith: "To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith." In other words, we can nourish our faith by reading the Bible and the Catechism (which contains the entirety of what Catholics believe). I have to ask myself these questions: "How often do I read the Bible? When is the last time I read the Catechism? Have I ever prayed to God for faith? When was the last time I did that?"
Summary
* Fear rules the lives of MANY people
* Fear is caused by lack of faith
* God loves us and he wants to save us. That's why Jesus came
* Faith comes from God as a gift
* We can either accept or reject this gift of Faith
* Now that we have faith (the key to erasing fear) we must not sin against our faith
* In order to nourish our precious gift of faith, we must read the Bible and the Catechism
* We should ask God to increase our faith
God DOES care about us. In fact, he loves us. Do you believe?
1-Mark 2:7
2-Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 162
3-CCC 150
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