“Why are you so terrified?” Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 4:35-41.

Book of Job 38:1.8-11.
The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said :
And who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb;
When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands?
When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door,
And said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!



Psalms 107(106):23-24.25-26.28-29.30-31. 
Some went off to sea in ships, plied their trade on the deep waters.
They saw the works of the LORD, the wonders of God in the deep.
He spoke and roused a storm wind; it tossed the waves on high.
They rose up to the heavens, sank to the depths; their hearts trembled at the danger.

In their distress they cried to the LORD, who brought them out of their peril,
Hushed the storm to a murmur; the waves of the sea were stilled.
They rejoiced that the sea grew calm, that God brought them to the harbor they longed for.
Let them thank the LORD for such kindness, such wondrous deeds for mere mortals.




Second Letter to the Corinthians 5:14-17. 
Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died.
He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.



Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 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 him 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?"

“Why are you so terrified?”

His disciples drew near to him, woke him and said: “Help, Lord, we are perishing!” … O blest, O true disciples of God, you have the Lord your Savior with you and you are afraid of danger? Life is with you, and you worry about your death? You arouse from sleep the Creator who is present with you as though, even asleep, he could not calm the waves and stop the storm?

What answer do the beloved disciples give to that? We are very small children who are still weak. We are not yet strong men… We have not yet seen the cross. The Lord’s passion, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, have not yet given us solidity… The Lord is right to tell us: “Why are you so terrified? Why are you lacking in faith?” Why are you lacking in strength? Why this lack of trust? Why so little recklessness when you have Trust with you? Even if death were to break in, should you not bear it with great constancy? In all that happens, I will give you the necessary strength, in every danger, in every trial, including the soul’s departure from the body… If in danger my strength is necessary so as to bear everything courageously, how much more necessary is it if you are not to fall before life’s temptations!

Why be troubled, O you of little faith? You know I am powerful on earth; why don’t you believe I am also powerful over the sea? If you acknowledge me as true God and Creator of everything, why don’t you believe I have power over all I have created? “He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea: ‘Quiet! Be still!’ The wind fell off and everything grew calm.”