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12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Sometimes we need to be reminded who’s really in charge.  For as much as we would like to think it’s us, it’s not.  It’s God.  Our readings this week serve as a reminder that our sense of control is often within our own imaginations.  There are greater forces at work.  We are reminded that it is God who created us and our abilities, and that for all our own hubris, all the wonders of creation are of His hand, not ours.  This is the power of God – so far beyond our own that we can only sit with a sense of wonder and awe in His presence and glow of His love.

The Word for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Job 38:1, 8-11
Psalm 107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31
2 Corinthians 5:14-17
Mark 4:35-41

Our first reading comes from the book of Job.  At this point in the narrative Job has been through a lot of suffering, so he decides to confront God, blaming him for his condition and looking for an answer as to why he has been made to suffer.  Our passage this week is but a small part of God’s response, reminding Job, and us, that it is only He who contains the power of the sea.  This small passage is but part of a much longer cataloging of the wonders of God’s creation and the power with which He, God, can command of it.  That no matter how much we may think we’re in control, we’re not.  Rather it is God who has the power.  Our Psalm not only echoes this understanding of God’s power over the waters of the sea and the storm, but that we also live in God’s love, grace, and protection.

God’s grace and protection are also evident in our Gospel from Mark.  Picking up the narrative where we left off last week (teaching with parables), Jesus and the Apostles board a boat to depart from the crowd and cross to the other side.  As Jesus sleeps, a violent storm comes and threatens to sink the boat.  In their panic they wake Jesus, who then rebukes the wind and calms the sea.  Jesus questions why the Apostles were terrified while the Apostles themselves are in awe, wondering who Jesus is that he can command the wind and the sea.  We, of course, know the answer, and throughout this stretch of ordinary time we will journey with the Apostles as they slowly discover that answer, that Jesus is the Christ.

Our second reading continues our study of Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians.  This week’s passage reminds us that through our love of Christ, and his love for us, we are now a new creation.  It is because of Christ the old things have passed away and that new things have come.  We are no longer the same as we once were, no longer serving ourselves, but now live to serve Christ.

Final Thoughts:
The book of Job isn’t prophecy or history.  It is poetry, and considered by many to be a literary masterpiece beyond biblical studies.  Even though Job and his story are a literary construct, the truth within the story mirrors many of our own personal struggles, and along with it our frustrations with God over those conditions.  In Catholic tradition Job is the “go-to” book for addressing issues of the suffering of the innocent and the struggles of our human condition.  Yet the book doesn’t give us any definitive answers.  Instead, the author challenges readers to come to their own understandings.  Just as God is all powerful, He has also endowed His creation with free will, which in effect puts many choices in our own hands.  How should we respond?  Just as God has power over his creation, he has also given us certain abilities to overcome those struggles.  I would suggest that our Psalm holds the key: “Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.”  By seeing the strength and love of God, perhaps we can find similar strength and love in ourselves which can see us beyond any suffering we might facing.  As Paul suggests in our second reading, to stop living for ourselves, and live for Christ.

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