God is No Stranger to Hurricanes

Gospel Reflection for June 23, 2024 - Mark 4:35-41

Jun 23, 2024

And he saith to them that day, when evening was come: Let us pass over to the other side.
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 rising 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? (Mark 4:35-41 DRA)

While studying the readings for this Sunday, I was reminded of a recent song by the Hillbilly Thomists, a group of Dominican friars who sing bluegrass music, both classics and their own compositions, and are named after Flannery O'Connor's description of herself. As in these readings, the Hillbilly Thomists' song “Floodwaters” uses weather, specifically storms, as a metaphor for God's Providence and its relation to suffering, or the problem of evil. The opening words of the song capture the way that many of the faithful, including Job, David the Psalmist and the apostles in the boat with Jesus feel amidst the tempests of life:

Winds are blowin'
The roof right off the house
Those floodwaters
Are comin', you'll want to get out
And the tide
Can turn on you all at once
And the hope
That you built can return to the dust[1]

Job, who had built for himself a solid house, with a loving family, supposedly loyal friends and a successful trade, suddenly found the roof blown off and his hopes brought to dust. Likewise, David oscillated throughout his life between success and failure, obedience and temptation, victory and inevitable defeat. The apostles, who had followed Jesus as His disciples for some time, witnessing His miraculous power, perfect holiness and divine wisdom, now find Him asleep, seemingly indifferent to their plight, only to be rescued by Him at the last minute.

In all these instances, God reminds His people that it is not only He who saves them from the storms - it is also He who wills that the storms come. While God does not directly cause evil, it occurs only because He allows it. The Psalm this week makes this abundantly clear, as David wrote, “His command raised up a storm wind / which tossed its waves on high.” Like the apostles, the subjects of this Psalm feel the same sense of abandonment as “their hearts melted away in their plight.” Job is also reminded, in the first reading and elsewhere, that it is ultimately God's will that allowed Satan to ruin his life, taking from him all that he loved and leaving him broken and alone. Again, God did not do this Himself, nor could He, and indeed, in His original design, man lived in Eden, perfectly happy and immune to all danger. But, due to original sin and human free will, God allows us sometimes to get what we want and what we deserve for our sins: separation from His protective goodness.

When we sin, we reject God, but, because this world is ruled by Satan its prince, we are often rewarded materially for our sins; some, like those so-called Christians who follow the Prosperity Gospel, as well as Muslims and even atheists, will interpret this worldly success as a sign of divine favor or moral rectitude. However, at times, God will allow our sins to catch up with us - our violations of natural law will cause diseases such as STDs, our crimes will be brought to justice, etc. But it is also possible, as with Job, that God will allow us to suffer not merely as a punishment for sin but to test our faith, to hone our virtue and prove our charity. As St. Paul wrote, “And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution.” (2 Tim 3:12) And again, “For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Heb 12:6)

Accordingly, to reference Odd Thomas, this world can be considered as a kind of boot camp, the training (askesis) of the Church Militant through spiritual warfare “against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.” (Eph 6:12) Though we were made for Eden, now our God-given end is even higher: Beatitude, which can only be achieved if we are made “perfect, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48) And, like the humanity of Christ, we are made perfect through redemptive suffering, by remaining faithful, like Job, through all that God allows us to undergo, accepting every affliction as His will, even when, like Our Lord on the Cross, we ask why He has forsaken us, or, like the apostles in the boat, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” The chorus of the Hillbilly Thomists' song expresses this profoundly:

God is no healer the way we would like Him
He lets life roll on
A Father who did not spare His own Son
It sure puzzles us some
God is no stranger to hurricanes
He lets them blow right down the line

In today's world, it is easy to feel abandoned by God. As Catholics, the more we love God, the more we will hate sin and become sensitive to the evils around and within us. Satan's throne seems stronger now than ever before, as sin is celebrated with pride in the streets, the murder of children, the sick and the elderly is funded by the government and demanded by the people, and Christians are persecuted, whether by secularists, Muslims or even fellow Christians for supposed “bigotry” or even simply for believing in Christ. In the Church, those who most try to follow Christ, preserving Tradition and the Deposit of Faith, are those most persecuted by their fellow Catholics, even at the highest levels of the hierarchy.

This storm leads some faithful Catholics to believe that God could not allow such things to happen, that Vatican II, the Novus Ordo or the modern papacy must be invalid, evidence of a false Church. But in truth, this is just a cop-out, an easy answer to an age-old problem. We must have the courage to admit that God has allowed the Church to undergo a great persecution, one as much from within as from without, whether because of our sins or merely to test us, to see who will abandon Him, as He asked the apostles following the Bread of Life discourse, when so many of His disciples “went back; and walked no more with him”: “Will you also go away?” But our response must be that of St. Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” (Jn 6:67-69) As we carry our crosses, we must learn to love others as Christ loved us: this is the lesson for which He tests us.

We must cling to the Barque of St. Peter, even if it seems to be going off-course, trusting the winds of the Holy Ghost, which sometimes swirl as in a hurricane, to blow us right again. We must remember that, the more we seek to follow Christ, the more the world will hate us, tempt us and try to lead us to deny Him and fall into worldliness, whether through bodily affliction, emotional distress, poverty, mistreatment by those closest to us, or persecution for our faith - but all of this is a consolation that God loves us. May we never forget, and pray for those who do, knowing that Christ is infinitely patient, like the father of the Prodigal Son, giving us however many years He wills for us to repent and return to Him, never ceasing to love us even while allowing us to accept or deny Him freely. In the end, He alone is our hope, and so all Christians should live “no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”