Martin Jumbam
The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, June 21, 2015, as the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “The Lord is the strength of his people, a saving refuge for the one he has anointed. Save your people, Lord, and bless your heritage, and govern them for ever! Amen.”
In the first reading of this day’s Mass, Job has asked why God has struck him with all the disasters he has suffered in his life, refusing to acknowledge any capital sin he has committed to justify God’s punishment on him. God retorts that he (God) is present where Job or anyone else has never been, even in the raging waters of the sea. God acts where no human being ever could or can. Even though he is infinitely more powerful than Job, he still invites Job to engage in a conversation. In the second reading, Paul tells his converts of Corinth that Christ died and rose again out of love for us so that we may live for him and in him. He who lives in Christ is a new creation. In the Gospel, Saint Mark shows Jesus exercising his powers over nature. He quells the force of the stormy sea, leading his disciples to wonder aloud: “Who can this be whom even wind and sea obey?” Today’s readings present us an opportunity to speak on the mystery of God as revealed in Jesus and in the Church.
In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to understand that no matter how many doubts may arise in our hearts, we only need to knock on the cabin of our hearts to awaken Jesus asleep in us and he will always quell the storm rocking our lives.
First Reading: Job 38:1; 8-11.
The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands? When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door, and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment.
The Book of Job forms part of what is usually referred to as the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Whereas the other books forming the wisdom literature usually take the form of proverbs, maxims and sayings, the Book of Job is a piece of wisdom writing in the form of a continuous narrative. The book takes its name from the central character, Job, an upright man, who suffers a whole series of terrible reverses in which he loses his property, his family and even his health.
As it is the case in many African societies, where it is believed that a person who suffers must have committed an offence against the clan or tribal moral code, Job’s friends and family members accuse him of being the cause of his own misfortunes. Job, however, refuses to reject God despite his terrible conditions and, in the end, he is shown to have been an upright man in every way, and God again blesses him with a new family and with fortune greater than what he had lost. After a long and happy life he dies, like an ancient patriarch, surrounded by esteem and honor.
In the passage of our meditation, Job has been longing to confront God, to speak to him, to discuss and argue with him in order to defend himself. He is not discouraged when his friends ridicule the idea that God can appear in person to reply to him and, to prove him right, God does indeed appear, and commends him for his desire to meet him in person. He confronts Job, not with terror, but with questions. This is extraordinary because Job’s faith has provoked the hidden God into becoming the revealed God.
In this passage, God speaks in very simple, clear language, telling Job that he is present in places where Job or no one else has ever been. He has acted and does act where no human being ever could or can. He arranges things most wisely and takes the greatest care of created beings (stars, birds, animals) and has absolute control over nature. Even the tumultuous sea, which no human force can control, is looked after like a child by God’s mighty hand. Only God, as the Psalmist says, in the Responsorial Psalm of this day, can hush the storm to a gentle breeze and still the billows of the sea. That is what Jesus will also do, as Mark tells us in the Gospel message of this day. His power over nature is revealed and all wonder ‘Who then is this whom even the wind and the sea obey?” He is Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who stills the storms raging in our lives. Let us turn to him in thanksgiving, he who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit one God forever and ever. Amen.
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17.
Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
Between his first letter to the Corinthians, written in the spring of the year 57, and the second, a number of things seemed to have occurred to lead Paul to again write to his converts of Corinth. It would seem the hostility of some prominent Jews forced Paul to leave Ephesus to Troas and later to Macedonia from where he sent his second letter to the Corinthians towards the end of the year 57.
When Paul left Corinth, some of his enemies appeared on the scene and began to undermine his authority and his teachings. Paul had written his first letter to the Corinthians to answer some difficult questions that the church there had put to him, and to correct some reported disorders in that church. With his enemies now becoming increasingly aggressive and taking over communities Paul had left behind, he wrote this second letter to defend the authenticity of his own ministry and his authority as an apostle. He reminds his converts of Corinth that in so far as he had established the church in Corinth, he had a right to say how he thought it should be managed.
Paul’s adversaries claim that he is mad because they cannot understand his lofty teaching or the zeal with which he preaches. He is, however, not worried what they may think about the folly of his preaching (1 Cor 1: 18ff), or his zeal for souls (2 Cor 11). He tells them of the effects of Christ’s death, a death he underwent out of love for man. Christ, the head of the Church, dies for his members; and they have mystically died to sin with and in him. Christ’s death is the price he paid for men and women – their ransom which sets them free from the slavery of sin, death and the devil. As a result, we belong no longer to ourselves but to Christ. As Saint Paul tells his Christians of Rome: “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord” (Rom 14: 7-8).
Let us pray: “God our Father, help us to follow the example of your Son’s patience in suffering. By sharing the burden he carries, may we come to share his glory in the kingdom where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.”
Gospel: Mark 4: 35-41.
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: “Let us cross to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” They were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
Chapter four of Saint Mark’s Gospel tells of Jesus preaching in parables. The parables section is immediately followed by accounts of miracles showing the unfathomable depths of Jesus’ power. In today’s Gospel, Jesus suggests to his disciples that they cross the lake to the other side. Mark’s dramatic narration reveals the fright of the disciples when a storm suddenly catches up with them. In the midst of the chaos, Jesus is fast asleep on the small bench at the back of the boat, his head on a cushion. Despite the shouts of terror from his disciples, Jesus continues to sleep seemingly unconcerned.
The disciples, who have seen Jesus rescue others from perilous situations, heal cripples and restore sight to the blind, now seems totally indifferent to their own plight. How can he be so indifferent to what happens to his own closest companions, they all wonder. That is why they shout accusingly: “Master, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus wakes up, rebukes the storm and commands the sea to be quiet. Then he also rebukes his disciples for their lack of faith. This leads the disciples to ask the central question of this Gospel: “Who then is this, that the wind and the sea obey him?”
The question of the identity of Jesus is at the heart of our Christian belief. In times of trials and tribulations, our faith in Jesus is usually tested to extremes. We even doubt that he is there at all. If he is indeed here, we usually ask ourselves, then why is he silent while we are sinking into the storms rocking our daily lives? When we feel tossed about in the storms of our own problems, and up to our necks in difficulty, we feel totally powerless and believe that Jesus is asleep at the corner of our lives.
But, is he really asleep? Not at all. Saint Augustine compares a Christian’s life to a ship at sea. “As a vessel on the sea is exposed to a thousand dangers – pirates, quick-sands, hidden rocks, tempests, -- so man in this life, is encompassed with perils, arising from the temptations of hell, from the occasions of sin, from the scandals or bad counsels of men, from human respect, and, above all, from the passions of corrupt nature. … This should not cause him to lose confidence. … When the tempest is violent,” continues Saint Augustine, “the pilot never takes his eyes from the light which guides him to port. In like manner, we should keep our eyes always turned to God, who alone can deliver us from the many dangers to which we are exposed” (Sermon, 51).
This Gospel challenges us to reflect on what we do with our faith when danger strikes. Do we turn to marabouts and other soothsayers and forget that Christ is just a step away ready to calm the storms of our lives? Our daily lives are characterized by many incidents like the ones we read in the Gospel. We have our ups and downs and uncertainties assail us each day. But our faith in Jesus must be steadfast even in the midst of tempests. Jesus alone brings us the peace of God even when he rebukes us for our lack of faith. When we come together to celebrate the Eucharist, the Lord strengthens us and renews our faith. Lord, I believe, strengthen the little faith I have. Amen.
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