Let Christ within Keep Storm at Bay : Inner Peace and Tranquility Impervious to Storms in Life - Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

The very first thing in Gautama Buddha’s teaching, known as the Four Noble Truths, is that life is difficult. Unless we awake to the Dharma truth and become a buddha and attain nirvana, our lives are subject to challenges. To be free from difficulties in life, a vicious cycle of suffering, known as samsara, we must attain the state of anatman by resolving our egos. For this, Gautama Buddha taught the Eightfold Right Path.

Life is also difficult to Christians. The scripture readings of the 12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle B, (Job 38:1,8-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41), tell us that we have nothing to worry about dealing with challenges in life as we become new creation by having Christ for our inner strengths. In order for this, we also need to resolve our egos and replace them with Christ. As Paul explains, in order to be free from anxiety, fear, etc, we must crucify our old selves, so that we have Christ living in us (Galatians 2:20). And Christ within us is our stabilizer, our inner strengths and tranquility.

Having the living Christ within us (Galatians 2:20) also means that living in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), as the Father is in Christ and he in Him (John 14:20; 15:4). This way, we become one not only with each other but with Christ (John 17:21-23), as  he is one with the Father (John 10:30). And this is what it means to be new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and one body of Christ, the Church (i.e. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27), as he is the head of this one body, the Church (Colossians 1:18). A body without head is dead. So we must be firmly attached to the head, the Christ, who is the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20; cf. Isaiah 28:16; Psalm 118:22), as the branches are so with the vine (John 15:4-8).

In the Gospel Reading (Mark 4:35-41), we see Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee on the boat and hit by raging storm with high winds and waves. The disciples fell into panic, but Jesus was in the stern, asleep. They woke him up and said, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”(Mark 4:38). Jesus rose from his sleep and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”(Mark 4:39). In response, the storm gave its way to calmness. Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” (Mark 4:40), leaving them in awe. They wondered who Jesus really was, as even wind and sea obey him.

In this Gospel narrative, the real storm that Jesus had to rebuke and calm was rather the psychospiritual turbulence within the disciples. And this problem, as Jesus indicates, could have been prevented if their faith were strong. To have such a strong faith to remain calm and undisturbed even though living in  a stressful and anxiety-provoking situation, we must have Christ living in us, as we are in Christ, as well (i.e. John 14:20). In other words, strong faith, keeping Jesus within and being in him, makes us impervious to negative effects from life’s stormy situations.

God may test us for our faith, as He did with Job.

Though he seemed to be “perfect” for his blamelessness, uprightness, shunning evil, and fearing God (Job 1:1), Job was rather prideful and did not truly see the infinite greatness of God, as pointed by Elihu (Job 32:2). As God tested his faith, Job began to become bitter as his pride kept him blind to his covert haughtiness, resulting in prolonged suffering (i.e. Job 3:1-31:40). Because of his pride, Job only saw himself as “innocent and pure”, thus, did not understand why he had to suffer. This problem had to be confronted with Job by Elihu (Job 36:22-37:24).

Then, out of storm/whirlwind (סַעַר/car) God began to speak to Job directly (Job 38:1). In the First Reading (Job 38:1, 8-11), we hear God’s words to Job, reminding him of His power over nature, the fact that it is God, who has created the universe, setting order out of chaos (Genesis 1:1-19), has the power over it, not any human, not even a righteous man like him. This echoes what Elihu spoke of God’s commanding power over nature (Job 37:14-24).

So, God admonished Job with these words:

Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves stop? (Job 38:11)

This statement of God to Job hammers down Job’s inner pride. And there is a juxtaposition between Job’s pride and his emotional waves.

Job might have thought that he was in control to make himself appear innocent and pure to God by observing His commandments and doing all right things. But in the stormy whirlwind, God confronted Job’s blindness to his own furtive haughtiness. And God hinted that he reacted with emotional ups-and-downs, like high waves, to the test of his faith because of his hidden pride.

In the Gospel Reading (Mark 4:35-41), the disciples were experiencing traumatic emotional and spiritual storm, in response to high winds and high waves that made them afraid to perish in the sea, while Jesus was in control, keeping his peace undisturbed, until the panicked disciples woke him up. And Jesus confronted that it was because of their weak faith. In the First Reading (Job 18:1, 8-11), God confronted and knocked Job’s covert pride that kept him from attaining inner peace when his life turned into series of sufferings, as his faith was tested.

The disciples experienced psychospiritual storm because of their lack of faith. Though he never lost his faith in God, Job argued his way through (i.e. Job 13:15) because of his pride, resulting in his psychospiritual storm. A lesson from these two cases of storms is that strong faith and humility help us attain inner calmness, as symbolized by Jesus asleep undisturbed on the boat amidst sea storm. For such a faith, we need to be new creation, having Christ in us and being in him, as the Father is in him and him in the Father. And to overcome pride, we need to resolve our ego by replacing it with Christ within.

Life is, indeed, difficult, as taught by Gautama Buddha in his Four Noble Truths. And Buddha pointed to attain nirvana for eternal freedom from cyclical storms of suffering (samsara) by way of the Eightfold Right Path for anatman. On the other hand, for us, Christians, to attain inner peace and tranquility impervious to storms in life, we must strengthen our faith by replacing our ego with Christ within, and being in him, and this also removes our covert pride, because he is humble (i.e. Philippians 2:5-11). And this is us being new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This is, in fact, comparable to how Viktor Frankl kept his sanity and himself from sinking into despair, upon losing everything and suffering as he was put in four different concentration camps (Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering III, and Türkheim), like Job, who never lost his faith though he suffered greatly. Frankl never let the Nazi rob his inner freedom, where there is will to meaning. And for us, Christians, what Frankl calls "will to meaning" is our faith, stemming from Christ living in us, as we in him.