There is a wonderful television show out called “The Chosen.” It must be good, because all of my religious friends are talking about it. They all tell me that it is wonderful. It is a crowd funded television series on the life of Jesus. “Crowd funded” means that it has been produced dependent on the donations that have been given by others who have watched it and want other people to see it. it is available for free to anyone who might wish to watch it on the internet. My priest friends are telling me how good it is; many of the religious sisters that I know are telling me how good it is; and many of my lay friends are telling me how good it is. As I tell you about it now, I am going to make a commitment to watch it myself so that I may come back to you at some time in the future with a homily based on my having watched this wonderful series about Jesus’ life. I promise that I will watch this series and I invite you to do the same.

The reason that I have yet to watch this television series, despite all the recommendations that I have been given about it, is that my own preference when I watch television is to watch crime dramas or documentaries about crime. Most nights when I cook my dinner, I do so to shows like “S.W.A.T,” “F.B.I.” or “Law and Order.” I am afraid that the Sisters of Life, with whom I share the rectory, will be scandalized by all the gunfire they must hear while I am cooking dinner. They are also some of those who have recommended “The Chosen” to me. One of the crime shows that I watched recently was a documentary mini-series called “This is a Robbery: The World’s Greatest Art Heist.” This is a story about the robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990. One of the great paintings that was stolen in this robbery, which is the only reason I am telling you about it, was a famous painting by Rembrandt called The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, which depicts today’s Gospel story.

This painting, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, is apparently so famous because it is the only seascape ever painted by Rembrandt. Painted in 1633, it has not been seen since it was stolen in 1990.

Now, I do not really know a great deal about art, but I have to say, when this painting was shown in the documentary about its theft, I was struck by how powerfully it spoke to me and summed up much of what I had been feeling and experienced through the uncertainty of the pandemic. As I have shared with you before, when the pandemic first began in March of 2020, I experienced a real sense of panic and uncertainty. While I was not so much worried about myself, I could not imagine how the parish was going to survive if we could not celebrate Mass and were going to have to lock our doors with the staff remaining at home. Initially, I felt the fear and terror that the disciples in today’s Gospel must have felt in the midst of the storm. After a while, however, as a result of speaking with a few very good friends here in Canada, I realized that much of my fear was due to a matter of perspective. I was allowing my worry to cause me to lose sight of my faith and what I believed to be true about Jesus, His presence in my life, and the power of the resurrection in the face of all that life will bring our way. Like the disciples in this Sunday’s Gospel, my initial reaction to the pandemic was “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

Of course, when we find ourselves asking, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” we also need to take the time to break away from our panicking and listen to what Jesus has to say. In our Gospel today, it is almost as if Jesus is inviting the disciples to a quick exercise in mindfulness. He says to them “Peace! Be still!” This invitation to be quiet and be still is like Him asking them to take a quick “time-out” to take stalk of their situation. As they do this, Jesus rebukes the sea, the wind ceased, and there was dead calm. This calm can be produced in our own hearts if we stop to be with the Lord quietly in the midst of our panic. It is a way of stopping to get perspective and remind ourselves of the reality of who we are and who we believe Jesus to be.

As they stopped and regained their perspective on the situation, the first thing that the disciples would have become aware of, is that Jesus was right there with them and if they really had faith in Him, they should be confident that He will remain true to His promises to them. This is what leads Jesus to say to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” The time-out that Jesus was inviting them to take was in order that they might have a moment to regain their perspective and realize His love for them and the reality that He was right there with them.

Saint Paul summarizes the reason for us to be confident no matter what might be ahead of us, as he writes in the Second Letter to the Corinthians: “Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for them.” This is really a summary of the Easter faith in the resurrection and the reason that we Christians ultimately ought not to fear anything or anyone. In fact, what Paul is telling us gives you and I who live after the resurrection even more reason for confidence than those who were in the boat with Jesus because they did not yet know of the resurrection and His victory over death. Our faith and confidence in the resurrection ought to be what calls us to confidence in the most difficult of trials and to turn to the Lord for our peace. The perspective that Paul calls all Christians to have on life and its trials is: “From now on, we regard nothing from a human point of view. Even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know Him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” Christ and the good news of His resurrection ought to call all of us to a new point a view—a point of view that can give us perspective in the time of trials and difficulties.

God also reminds Job in today’s first reading why Job should trust in God. God asks Job, who seems intent on offering God advise on how to run the universe, where he was when the universe was being created? God asks who Job thinks set the seas in their place and the land in its boundaries. The implication is that if God could have figured out that part of creation, should we not also trust Him to get the rest of it right. What the scriptures are really doing this Sunday is asking who it is that we believe God is, and if we really believe what we profess about God? Why do we allow ourselves to doubt so much in the face of our difficulties and trials, if we really believe that Jesus has saved us from death?  As Jesus said to His disciples in the boat, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

All of which, I think, takes me back to where I started, with “The Chosen.” When Jesus asks His disciples why they are so afraid? Have you still no faith? He is basically asking them: “Don’t you get it? Don’t you understand who is in the boat with you? He asks them to be mindful of who He is and why they need not fear, if they really believe and understand who He is and what He has done for them.

It was reflecting upon this at the beginning of the pandemic, and what I believed that Jesus had already done for me in His life, death and resurrection that brought me calm in the midst of the uncertainty that so many of us were feeling. In some ways, as I stopped to reflect on what I believed about Jesus and His presence in my life, it allowed me to move from the front of the boat, where my gaze was only on the storm ahead to a seat near Jesus where there was calm and the perspective offered by our faith.  By presenting the life of Jesus as a proper television mini-series, “The Chosen” offers a reminder of the events of Christ’s life and images that can help all of us recall who Christ is and what He has done for us. This idea of relating to Christ through image and prayer is not new. Many spiritual writers have spoken about doing this in the past. They would speak of the need to see oneself in a Gospel scene with Jesus. In doing this kind of prayer, by stopping and gaining perspective of the situation with the Lord, many others have found the courage and faith to follow Jesus and walk with Him through their own trials. He invites us to do this with Him also when we have challenges and trials to deal with in life.

Last week, in the homily, I talked about the long road to holiness and the need to persevere in that journey throughout all of life. Holiness is not something that we can accomplish in a few weeks or days. We are called to have confidence that God will bring to completion the good works He has begun in us at baptism, if we persevere and remain confident that He will remain true to His promises. We can express this confidence, I had said, in the simple prayer: “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in you.”

This week offers a conclusion to that message by reminding us who is in the boat with us as we take that long journey towards holiness. Jesus, the chosen one of God, is the one who has called us to journey with Him and He is in the boat with us. We might lose perspective at times and see only the storms and rough waters ahead. At those moments, Jesus has a very simple message for us: “Peace! Be still!” Think about who I am and who it is that has chosen you. You are sons and daughters of the Chosen one of God. From now on, as St. Paul says, “Regard nothing from a human point of view…. For if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!”

When the storms of life threaten to overwhelm any of us, may we draw near to Christ and know the peace and stillness of the Chosen one of God, as we say to Him: “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in you.”

To all of the Fathers of the parish, I extend wishes and blessings for a very Happy Father’s Day. I will remember all of the Father’s of the parish, living and dead, at our Masses this Sunday.

Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor, St. Peter’s Parish—Toronto, Ontario

This reflection based on the readings from the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time—Year B: Job 38: 1-4, 8-11; Psalm 107; 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17; and Mark 4: 35-41.