Throughout the Gospel, we see Jesus behaving naturally and simply. He does not seek clamorous gestures from those who follow him. He performs miracles without making a fuss, as much as possible. He recommended to those he had healed not to go around proclaiming the graces they received. He teaches that the Kingdom of God does not come with ostentation, and shows in the parables of the mustard seed and the hidden leaven the mysterious power of his words. We also see him quietly accepting requests for help, which he will then attend to.
The silence of Jesus during the trial before Herod and Pilate is full of sublime greatness. We see him standing before a vociferous, excited crowd, which uses false witnesses to distort his words... This silence of God in the midst of the whirlwind that human passions stir up particularly impresses us. The silence of Jesus, which is not indifference or a contemptuous attitude towards creatures who offend him: it is full of piety and forgiveness. Jesus Christ always awaits our conversion. The Lord knows how to wait! He has more patience than we do.
The silence on the Cross is not a pause taken to repress anger and condemn. It is God, who always forgives, who is there. He opens wide the path of a new and definitive era of mercy. God always listens to those who follow him, even if sometimes it seems that he is silent, that he does not want to hear us. He is always attentive to the weaknesses of men..., but to forgive, lift up and help. If he is silent on some occasions, it is so that our faith, our hope and our love may mature.
In the scene that the Gospel of the Mass1 proposes to us, we contemplate Jesus tired after a day of intense preaching. The Lord went up with his disciples into a boat to cross to the other side of the lake. When they had been at sea for a while, a storm arose so great that the waves covered the boat. Meanwhile, the Lord, exhausted by fatigue, fell asleep. He was so tired that not even the strong lurches of the boat woke him up. In the face of so much danger, Jesus seems absent. It is the only passage in the Gospel that shows us Jesus asleep.
The Apostles, mostly men of the sea, soon realized that their efforts were not enough to secure the course of the boat and understood that their lives were in danger. They then approached Jesus and woke him up, saying: Lord, save us, we are perishing!
Jesus reassured them with these words: Why are you afraid, men of little faith? It is as if he were saying to them: don't you know that I am with you, and that this should give you a firmness without limits in the midst of your difficulties? And getting up, he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. The disciples were filled with amazement, peace and joy. They verified once again that going with Christ is walking safely, even though He remains silent. And they said: Who is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? He was their Lord and their God. Later, with the sending of the Holy Spirit to their souls on the day of Pentecost, they understood that they would have to live in frequently agitated waters and that Jesus would always be in their boat, the Church, apparently asleep and silent at times, but always welcoming and powerful; never absent. They understood this when, shortly after, at the beginning of their apostolic preaching, they were besieged by persecutions and felt the sting of the incomprehension of the pagan society in which they carried out their activity. However, the Master comforted them, kept them afloat and spurred them on to new endeavors. And he does the same now with us.
HCD