TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
23 JUNE 2024
For
the past few Sundays, Saint Mark has described the early ministry of Jesus in
Galilee. Jesus has been preaching,
teaching, telling parables, and working miracles. He has announced that the Kingdom of God is
in their midst. In working miracles,
especially in driving out demons from possessed people, he has demonstrated in
action what he has proclaimed in words.
He has also faced criticism from his family, who heard that he was out
of his mind. He widened the definition
of family by inviting anyone who is willing to do the work of his Father to
become mother and father and brother and sister to him.
Today,
those who want to be part of that family stand on the shore of the Sea of
Galilee. They enter the boat with him
and begin to cross the water. On the
other shore, they will learn how to be his disciples in the next stage of his
ministry. As they head to the other
shore, they run into one of those violent storms typical of the Sea of
Galilee. As the waves are breaking over
the boat, they are afraid that they will be drowned. To their dismay, Jesus is asleep on a cushion
in the stern. So, they take the first
step in becoming authentic disciples. Disciples
in this first stage ask questions: “Do
you not care that we are perishing?” They address him as “teacher,” because
they want him to summon God to calm the storm.
When he awakens, he rebukes the wind and commands it to be quiet and be still, as he
had rebuked the demons so many times.
Once the wind ceased, and there is great calm, he does not answer their
question.
Instead, he
makes it clear that he has power over the storm as the Son of God. He does not give trite answers to explain the
individual storms of their lives. He
responds to their question in the same way God had responded to Job’s questions
in the first reading. He asks them two
questions: “Why are you terrified?” “Do you not have faith?”
As we take
steps in learning how to be authentic disciples, we ask the same
questions. All of us endure various
storms that cause fear. Storms can be
very personal. They can arise when we
have failed at some task in life – in school or in business or in personal relationships. We experience financial hardship, illness,
injury, and death. Other storms are
communal. We continue to endure terrible
wars, the polarization in our country, and the Covid-19 Pandemic. They have rocked us to the core. Instead of dispelling them, Jesus meets us in
the storm, as he meets those in the boat with him. He raises more questions about our lives and
invites us to enter into dialogue with him through prayer and spiritual
discernment.
As members
of the Body of Christ, we are in this boat we call “the Church.” In this boat, Jesus invites us to deepen our
faith in him, as he deepens the faith of those disciples in the boat of today’s
Gospel. They are filled with great awe
and ask one another: “Who then is this
whom even wind and sea obey?” Saint Paul
knows this awe and deep faith when he writes his second letter to the
Corinthians. He tells them that the
mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection is at the heart of everything he
does. Because Jesus died for all, we can
all endure death. Like Jesus, if we die
to ourselves, we can rise to live with him.
Once we have been convinced of this mystery, we can be transformed and
become new creations in Christ.
Because of
his encounter with Jesus Christ, Saint Paul is able to let go of many negative
things in his past life. Those disciples
in the boat would eventually learn that they too can be transformed after the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We
can be transformed as we grow in faith and deepen our trust in the Lord
Jesus. At times, he may seem to be
asleep in our boat. But he is not. He is present in the worst of our storms. He is simply inviting us to trust him even
more as we are tossed about in the many storms of life.
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