TWELFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

TWELFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B (Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Cor 5: 4-17; Mark 4:35-41) Theme: Jesus is always there in the boat of our life Reflection: Life Is A Boat Journey - Today we enter into the twelfth Sunday of the liturgical year. We are slowly getting into the boat of life. Boat of life is not at the shore. Boat of life is not motionless. Boat of life is always in journey towards its destiny. Once we start our boat journey there are only two things we can do: either we come back with the failure to starting point or we travel ahead with dedication and hard work to reach the destiny. There is not third way. There is no middle drop. Third way and the middle drop would be only our perishing in the waters. First thing we have to know is that the boat is made not to be on the shore but in the water and on the move. Otherwise there is no meaning for the boat and it is equal to its non existence and non living or to its deadly condition. - Same with the life. Our life is a boat. It is made not be without motion and without action. It is not made to just to sit and while away the time. It is not made just to be indifferent and inactive to it. By the very word with which it is called, “LIFE” is something that is dynamic, energetic, moving and generating. Our boat of life is created for the travel and for the journey towards its destiny. It is oriented always towards its goal. Once the life’s journey begins there are only two directions it can make: either turning back with the face of a failure or to continue the travel until the end, until reaching the goal for which it is destined. There is no escapism. There is no third way of leading the life. The escapism and the third way would be “killing our life” or “becoming useless” as if we never existence or as never alive. - This is the situation of man. He is destined to travel. He is not only destined but his destiny is blocked with variety of difficulties. He himself made his journey difficult. His journey is difficult because the “root of his travel” is either unknown or neglected with the technological growth. He takes pride in his scientific, technical and industrial growth that he often throws out the ways that are trodden before him by his forerunners. He wants to fly in the skies, very good, but often forgets the ground as his departure and his arrival. He wants to cross over the oceans, of course he is capable, but often forget the shore as his start and his destiny. Journey is not the skipping; rather it is walking step by step. Journey is not the jumping; rather it is moving forward stage or stage. - There is always continuity in the journey. The past, the present and the future are interlinked. The past gives him experience, with that experience he lives the present for the betterment of the future. If one element of these is missing, enough, the life will not be complete. One may desire to skip or jump but it is only a momentary, because he has to come down and there is no other way. The ground and background is more important for the life’s journey. Man has to always keep in mind his coming and his going, thus, his arrival and his departure. Only then the qualitative journey is possible. Otherwise what happens is that he finds himself in the path that leads to nowhere. Finally, he steps in the no man’s land. His journey is terminated in the middle. He falls short of his destiny. - To put in the human logic, he is not guaranteed safe journey and ‘assured root’. There is always a hindrance in the root that man takes and in the way that man prepares. His technical developments have bettered his conditions of travel but not guaranteed hundred percent. The only “safe and secure root” that was prepared and revealed is Christian Faith. Not that there are no difficulties and hindrances in this root but “all the obstacles” are already overcome by Jesus. He offers the power to man to walk ahead with trust and with confidence. He is the Way and when man makes his journey through him and in him he does not falter. - He is there in the journey next to us. He is there in the boat of life. He is there both as the boat and guide. The only thing we have to do is this: we have to keep on moving ahead in spite of struggles of life with the faith that He is present with us. This is what Jesus teaches us today with the readings. Especially in the Gospel he invites his disciples not to be afraid of wind and the storm that shake the boat of our life. The Message of the Readings: In Him We Have Peace and Tranquility - First Reading: God Is the Creator and Sustainer: - Our God is the Lord of the Universe and its order. He is the creator and he sustains everything. He is the One who places each creature at its post and guides it. Therefore, the creation itself is in order as it is made by the Lord. The beauty and the order of creation are already expressed in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. God has created everything and “it appeared to him as very good”. The whole creation is good and beautiful because it is the handiwork of the Lord. This is the first thing that the believer/man has to keep in mind. Still there is seen lot of disorder both in the cosmic realm and also human sphere. The surprising question arises then: When God created everything good and beautiful, how did the disharmony enter into the world? If God is the author of life alone how do we find fear and death in and around us? - The answer is not so easy. But from the viewpoint of the biblical revelation there is always an answer. God made everything well and good. He created man and woman, in the particular manner, in his own image and likeness. He endowed them with the divine dignity of being always with him. He put everything that is good, in the hands of man and under his dominion. Man is made capable, because of his given freedom and dignity, to watch over well and to utilize well all that is under his authority. Man is given the capacity to control and sustain the order of the creation or the world. The divine command is that man has to control, with wisdom and knowledge, the available things. The story has been reversed or completely changed when some stranger entered into the scenario. The stranger who entered into man’s life is evil inclination to become more powerful and more authoritative. This evil inclination has reached to its peak with his pride and arrogance to become like God. Here, as the consequence, he has encountered the strange reality, the fallen state which ends up finally in his death. - Man is given control over the creation, not over God. But man wants more. He wants to be God. He wants to create and recreate the world. In fact, man can better the creation and can place it according to the good use of all. He can do this because he is given enough status to be over and above the creation. That is only with the matter of the world and created things, not with God. But, with the fact when man wanted to replace God and wants to be God, already man is out of his control. He loses control because he becomes imbalanced. His freedom and his divine dignity have lost their way. His power and authority have become selfish and destructive. He is slowly losing his control over the world, though he thinks that he is actually ruling it. Now man finds himself in the fear and frustration because he is not able to control all that he wants to control. His capacity to control is at stake. Above all, he is controlled by his daily failures and incapacities. The daily fears and frustrations have become his food and drink. Finally, he has lost his life: he has lost freedom, lost dignity, lost the capacity to domain. He lives just because he has to live forgetting the point of departure and point of arrival. He finds himself amidst the natural calamities and human struggles. - In the first reading, God, once again, reminds Job of His eternal power to hold fast to the creation and to sustain it with order and with harmony. He reminds Job that He has the power to divide the waters and to place them between the two walls. He reminds him that whole creation is under his control and he is the triumphant God. He finally reminds him that the creation is not under blind mechanisms but under the watchful eye of the Omnipotent God who gives it an order and makes it beautiful to live. To put in a word, in God we find the origin and order for everything that is good. - Second Reading: In Christ everything is made anew: - The fear and death of man is finally overcome. The life of man is made anew. Man is renewed and recreated into a new being. Man is given the possibility to re-find his capacity and his dignity. All this renewal and renovation has take place with the very blood of God-man Jesus. Man who has fallen into desperate condition of failures and fears is finally raised up again. God himself came to his rescue because man cannot save himself. God has taken the first and initiative step to live out what has to live and to die for what man had to die. Jesus Christ, Word made Flesh, God-man, has lived every pathetic condition of man very profoundly even unto death. This is the only way with which he can open the doors of life for man. He has resolved the human existential fearful and dreadful situation and he has done this by shedding his blood and by offering his own life. He would have chosen in other path/ or the way to rise up man from this condition because nothing is impossible for him. But, God has assumed human nature so that he experiences to the core every minute aspect of being human and thus open the way for man. Now the way is prepared. Now the truth is manifested. Now the life is regained: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”, he affirms. - Paul reminds us this truth in today’s second reading: “He has died for all, because all those who live, do not live for themselves, but for the One who died and is risen for them all” (v. 15). “By dying he destroyed our death and by rising he restored our life” is the mystery of faith we profess and proclaim during the Holy Mass. Jesus has given the man a direction to take and a way to follow. Nothing is out of our hands but He has kept everything in our hands. He already made path and kept it before man. Man has to first of all become aware of his renewed condition in Christ. He has to accept the way that is offered to him as a gift. He has to live in and for Christ. All this is possible when he accepts his existential and pathetic condition as having a way out in Jesus Christ. Paul affirms once again that “if one is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away, here are born the new things” (v. 17). The fallen creation and the fallen creature is restored and re-ordered. The newness is provided. The gift of harmony is offered. To put in a word, it is in Christ we have our peace and tranquility. - Gospel: “Calm down O wind and storm!” - The gospel reading is full of meaning and message. Jesus calms down the terrible wind and stops the frightening storm with command and authority. His words and actions confirm this: “He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still’” (Mk 4:39). But what happened prior to it is important. The disciples are in travelling along with Jesus. Their travel is in the boat. Indeed, it is Jesus who invites them to come along with him because it is his mission: his mission extended also to the other shore. Jesus asks them to participate in his mission: “Let us go across to the other side” (Mk 4:35). There are two things to be considered here: o First, crossing the sea means crossing the borders and reaching to the people of other side; Jesus mission is not only for the Israel but also for others. His mystery and mission is for all. He does this and he invites his disciples to take part in it. o Second, crossing the sea is an adventurous and difficult task. One has to prepare himself to confront so many disturbances and hindrances on the waters. All this is part of the sea journey. The goal is the only aim. The other shore is the only target. It is important that one has to start the journey and reach the goal. Yet, the most important thing is that one commits himself for the journey and does not stop it in the middle or turn back. - When Jesus calls them to make the journey along with him he also reminds them the difficulty of it. The winds blow. The storms arise. The waves turn down the boat. But the disciples have to be still courageous and confidence because their journey is not alone but With Him. When he is there with them they need not worry. The natural action of the sea because of the climate is that it becomes furious at times. The natural reaction of the sea travelers to this is that they become frightened. But the case with the disciples is different. Jesus is with them. Whether he sleeps or he is awake, it does not matter. He is there in the boat. The sustainer of the creation and the one who keeps everything in order is there in the boat. This fact, they have forgotten. They have closed their eyes to the presence of Jesus. That’s the reason why Jesus first rebukes the winds and then immediately rebukes also his disciples for the lack of faith in him. Jesus stands above the fears of the calamities. He is the ruler of the creation. The creation and even its powers cannot do him any harm. He ordains and orders everything. - The Sleep of Jesus has a theological significance. Usually, the expression of sleep in the gospels indicates the death. When the twelve year girl is dead, Jesus exclaims that she is not dead but only asleep. And such sleep is not permanent but only for a while. When Jesus is asleep in the boat there is wind and the storm and the disciples lost their courage and have become frightened. This also signifies of the near future in which Jesus enters into death and the disciples will be scattered with fear. But his sleep of death is not permanent, he rises again. He rises again to wipe away all the fears of life’s journey. There will be storms of persecutions and winds of criticisms of faith but the one who believes that Jesus is there with him need not fear. Jesus calms down the life’s struggles and leads the boat into the other side of the shore: he securely places us in our destiny. Conclusion: We Need To Place Our Trust In Him - We need not worry about our journey of life’s boat. Jesus’ presence is always assured to us. He is there with us and by us. “When He is with us, who can be against us” is the affirmation of Paul (Rom 8:31). We need not fear. We need only to have faith in him. He may seem to be sleeping but in reality nothing happens without his knowledge. He is the author of life and sustainer of order and harmony. Not only of the creation but also of the creature, that is, man. - The natural forces also have lot of frightening effect upon us. We often have the impression that the natural forces are irrational, dangerous and devastative. When we are affronted with the earthquakes or tsunamis or any kind of destructive natural calamity we are faced with dread fear. We think that they are foes and enemies of man. We have reason to say that. We justify the fact with our logical and rational mind. Once we get to know that they are totally beyond our control we fall back. Once we understand that we face failures when we deal with those calamities we move forward to blame even God. We even murmur and blame God because we think that it is he who sends them so that man can come to him with fear and trembling. Here we have wrong image of God and at least of Christian God. - The biblical culture reveals totally different fact. Every aspect of creation has its reference to and in God because he is the creator. When it is in God and has originated from God, it is always good and beautiful. He puts everything in order. The disorder has entered into the world with the fallen nature of man. Though God never wills, man has opted for it in his free choice. Man started using the creation and all that it contains with the wrong purpose. Thus, the purpose of creation is distorted and disordered by man. God knows it. But he never wants that it remains in the disorder. He comes down to man to teach him how to put trust in God and work for the harmony of the creation. Jesus has done thing by his death and by his resurrection: he has made everything new and he has obtained the order and harmony both of man and creation. - That Jesus, the king of the universe is with us. He is in our boat. He walks with us. He calls us by his Word. He strengthens us with is Bread. He assures the Way. The boat is on the safer side. We are in the boat and Jesus is also with us in the boat. We have to place our complete trust in him. Not that we do not have struggles and sufferings. Sure, we have and we will have. But they cannot do any harm to us because the Master of Peace is with us. With this confidence we go ahead. We will continue our journey with the faith that He Is With Us.