12th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
at St.
Mary’s in Salem
19-20 June
2021
Jb
38:1.8-11
2
Cor 5:14-17
Mk
4:35-41
Every place in the world where I have lived has celebrated both
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. I would say that in most countries Mother’s Day falls
on about the same Sunday in May, but Father’s Day varies quite a bit from
country to country. For instance, in Italy Father’s Day is always observed on
the Feast of St. Joseph, on March 19, which is very Catholic and very
appropriate. So, first off today, I
would like to extend best wishes to all dads on this their day and with June
bind it and them to Christ in His Sacred Heart.
Talking
with the plumber who came to install my water heater in Sioux Falls the other
day, he was quite insistent on how desperately American society needs integral
families with both a mother and a father. He put the accent on the importance
of fathers in raising children and I will do it too. May God bless our fathers
those living and those who have preceded us in death. Know of your value, dads,
after the example of St. Joseph, to found and protect the family! O St. Joseph,
we entrust our fathers to your powerful intercession. Through these men,
strengthen our families and prosper the life of your Church!
Praised
be Jesus Christ!
“Who shut within doors the sea…? When I set limits for it
and fastened the bar of its door, and said: This far shall you come but no
farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!”
In the Old Testament Book of Job, God Almighty challenges the
holy man Job, demanding that he back down on his complaining about being
unjustly punished in this life. The Lord required of Job that he acknowledge
God for Who He is, the Almighty, the only one who keeps the rolling and roaring
floods under lock and key. Man cannot hold God to account for the misfortune we
experience in life, even when it seems unjust, as it certainly did in the case
of Job. The Lord commands the wind and the waves, besides having brought into
being all that there is.
This
first reading for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time gives us the
proper context to understand then what happens in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus calms
the storm on the lake and the men in the boat are confronted with a reality far
beyond their life’s experience. All of a sudden, they realize that they can see
God. The Lord Jesus calms the storm by a simple command, and He teaches them something
that up until that moment they had not reckoned with in terms of their teacher.
“Who then is this whom even wind and
sea obey?”
It is a rhetorical question since the reality is right there
staring them in the face. They do not need anybody to answer it for them. “Who
then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” Beyond a shadow of a doubt Jesus
cannot be anyone other than God Himself.
The Book of Job presented God’s People in the Old Testament
with a monstrous challenge. For just about everyone back then it challenged the
common assumption that God punishes evil and rewards good already in this life.
Thanks to the scandal of Job’s terrible suffering, believers could no longer
ignore or explain away the problem of evil but had to face the age-old question.
Holy Scripture deprived them of their supposed common wisdom, that the one who
suffers must have some hidden fault or crime? No, that is not how life works! Here
in the Bible, we have the question posed in the extreme case of the good and
righteous man, seemingly confirmed as such by God Who has so blessed Job up
until this point in his life. How is it that all of a sudden then God permits
the just man, the truly holy man to suffer, taking everything away from him: great
wealth, even basic property, his family, his physical health and even his
personal dignity or self-respect?
The expression “It is not fair!” sort of sums up the
mentality back then and even now. Most of us may have met someone or may even
have a family member who is at odds with God because they are convinced that
God is to blame for the suffering which they do not deserve. “It is not fair!” they
cry and sometimes turn their back on God, maybe even in anger. The point is,
that they make too little of the consequences of the sin of our first parents, of
Adam and Eve. They ignore the reality of original sin which ushered suffering
and death into our world. Beyond that they claim reward for good behavior and favor
or protection from God for innocence. The Book of Job says no, you cannot; God
is not obliged to reward the righteous with health, wealth, and prosperity.
What to do? How are we then to live in this world?
Certainly
not by challenging God or denying His justice and love! “Who
then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” Two points, then, are worth
holding to firmly. One: Jesus is God, and His word is law. And two: None of us
has Job’s credentials and as such we have much less reason than he to complain
about misfortune in this life, this side of heaven.
I
make these two points because of the danger in society today, even among
Catholics, to deny or ignore Christ’s sovereignty. There is something heartrending
about the conservative commentators who have nothing more to offer than the
founding fathers, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. They treat the
United States as exceptional and claim favor in this life without reference to
Jesus, the only God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The liberal commentators
are even worse off, those truly tragic figures, who ignore Christ and claim as
progress complete moral relativism, as if God were no longer in charge of His
universe. Godlessness is not an option. It cannot be. All through the history
of the Church we can find examples of saints who witnessed to God’s sovereignty
and our beholding to Him.
One of the most mind-boggling things I think I have ever read
is the “Treatise on Purgatory” by Saint Catherine of Genoa. She was born in the
year 1447. She describes great happiness and relief at being caught up into the
terrible sufferings of Purgatory! Why? Simply because she is not lost and at
some point or another heaven and not hell awaits her.
St. John Climacus, born around 579 A.D. in his classic work, “The
Ladder of Divine Ascent”, has a chapter entitled, “On Painful and Genuine Repentance,
Which is the Life of Godly Convicts, and Concerning the Prison”, in which he
describes the horrible punishments taken on by monks in the Sinai desert, who took
on prison sometimes voluntarily for dread of losing heaven for failing to sufficiently
repent of their sins.
“Who
then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
Maybe St. Catherine of Genoa and St. John Climacus are a bit
much to take on, especially if prayer and penance have been neglected up until
this point in your life. Even so, I would be remiss, if I did not urge you to examine
your conscience and seek to stir up in your heart the love of God in Christ Who
offered Himself up on the Cross for our salvation. Penance should mark our
lives not just in Lent but all year long.
Praised be Jesus Christ!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
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