TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
(Job
38:1.8-11; II Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41)
Dear
friends, today's Mass readings help us believe in Jesus as our Lord and God.
Although we proclaim this belief in “the Creed,” it is such an extraordinary
truth that we have difficulty claiming it with all our hearts.
The first
reading comes from the Book of Job, one of the most thoughtful works in the
entire Bible. Job is a righteous man who experienced setbacks beyond what we
think possible to endure. He has lost his fortune, all of his children, and his
health. He wants to die, but before this he seeks an interview with God to ask
him why he was given such a terrible fate. Why did he, a man who had never
mistreated anyone, have to suffer so much? At the end of the book God grants
him the interview. But before Job speaks, God tells him that he could not possibly
understand the reason that he had to suffer because Job was not there when God
made heaven and earth. He adds the words from today's reading. It was He, that
is God, who set the limits to the sea.
Anyone who
has seen the ocean can verify that it is more immense than can be imagined. The
sea has always been formidable, but in the first century before the great ships
of modern times, it was considered the end of the world. It was thought of as a
region of chaos inhabited by insurmountable monsters. The reading says that God
tells Job that only He could set limits to the sea to form the contenders.
Before a being as magnificent as God, Job becomes silent. He no longer wants to
register complaints.
Now we
should look at the gospel. Jesus is in a boat with his disciples when a
powerful storm arises. The waves of the sea crash against the boat like the
bombs of the Allied forces in the invasion of Normandy. The disciples are
overcome with terror while Jesus sleeps contentedly. They awaken him in fear
for his life and exhort him to save them. He just has to tell the storm to shut
up and it deflates like a balloon with a puncture. If God is the one who sets
limits to the sea, Jesus shows himself to be God by calming the furious sea.
Sometimes
we feel overwhelmed by the troubles that arise in our lives. It can be a
confluence of misfortunes: the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, and an
accident that hospitalizes us all occurring simultaneously. We pray to the
Lord, but it seems like he is sleeping. We feel that he has forgotten us. This
was the condition of the early Church at the time of Mark's writing his gospel.
There were persecutions of Christians with no one to defend them. Under such
conditions we should never give up praying. In the second reading Saint Paul
says that “the love of Christ compels us.” He who died for all will not leave
us in trouble, but he will rescue us. This is as sure as a mother's attention
to the crying of her baby.
The gospel
today wants to emphasize first that Jesus Christ has the ability to help his
faithful people in need. Also, it emphasizes that he will not disappoint us
when we call him. It is up to us not to stop doing that incessantly.
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