‘Quiet! Be still! The wind ceased and there was great calm’

“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” (Mark 4:41) This is the question asked by the Apostles after Jesus quiets the stormy sea. How often have we asked the question or have had the question asked of us: “Who is Jesus?” There have been many holy men and women throughout the ages who have attempted to answer that question as well as scripture scholars and theologians. There have been many books written on the subject from St. Augustine’s “City of God” to St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Summa Theologica.” There have been catechisms great and small alike from the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” to Raymond Brown’s “101 Questions on the Bible.” But the one who can best answer the question — “Who is Jesus?” — is Jesus himself and the book that best answers all of our questions about Jesus is the Bible. From the Bible we receive the revelation of God’s great plan of salvation. From this plan we come to know God as kind, merciful, loving and forgiving.

Job came to know God not as a punishing God who destroys creation, but rather as a loving and merciful God who heals and creates anew. The first reading Sunday reveals how God made known to Job that he brings about healing and new life and Job comes to see in his affliction hope because God has sustained him. “Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb, and who made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands?”(Job 38:9) Simply put the God who creates does not destroy. But how often have we believed the contrary and thus rejected what our Church teaches in the Creed which itself comes from the revealed truth of the Bible which quotes Jesus who is the fullness of truth and life.

Once someone asks — “Who is Jesus?” — they then begin a quest to find the answer to this question. The definitive response to the answer that Jesus is the Son of God will ultimately be: “I believe.” These are the first two words to the Creed we profess each Sunday. Whoever says “I believe” is saying they pledge themselves to Jesus Christ and the Church. This pledge creates a personal relationship with Christ and with the Church. For no one can answer the question — “Who is Jesus?” — unless they have a personal relationship with Christ and once we have a personal relationship with Christ, we must then seek communion with others who have answered the question — “Who is Jesus?” — for themselves. We call this communion.

The Creed goes on to answer the question in Sunday’s Gospel reading from Mark 4:35-41: “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” In answering this question, we profess the oneness of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We profess that God is one in nature, substance and essence. The Father is the first origin of everything and transcendent in authority and, at the same time, all good in loving care for his children. Jesus reveals God as Father and he is Father not only in being creator, but he is also eternal Father by his relationship to his only begotten Son.

At the heart of our faith, we find in essence a person, the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only son of the Father who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising from the dead, ascended to the Father where he intercedes for us.

God creates out of nothing and brings order out of chaos. God calms the storms of our lives, this is the reason for our hope. “They rejoiced that they were calmed, and he brought them to their desired haven.” (Psalm 107:30-31) God transcends creation and God upholds and sustains creation. Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey? This is the God who brings all creation into being and the God who recreates through his Son our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us review the question once again, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” The answer: Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.