Sunday, June 23, 2024

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.