12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Job 38:1, 8-11
Psalm 107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31 (1b)
2 Corinthians 5:14-17
Mark 4:35-41
June 23, 2024
The disciples were afraid.
They were crossing the sea when a “violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.” To be in the storm might have been scary enough on its own. But it was so strong that the waves were filling the boat with water. They were afraid, and understandably so, that the boat would sink.
Yet Jesus was not concerned. He was in the boat asleep. He was in the storm with them but He was not concerned. He did not need to be. He knew He would be safe. He had God’s peace in his heart.
What storms do you face in your life? Do you have peace in your heart despite the storms?
The disciples did not.
They did what we should all do when we are afraid. They went to Jesus. They said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing.”
Of course, Jesus cares. He knew they would not perish. He “rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” and the storm was calmed.
Do you feel like God doesn’t came about the storms in your life?
God does care. He is right there with us. In our humanity, when our problems don’t go away, we sometimes think it means God doesn’t care about us.
God does care. You can faith in the one “whom even wind and sea obey.”
God is always with us. Job had been a great and prosperous man until Satan took it away. Job began to wonder why God allowed this. At first Job fully trusts in God but over time, his trust wavers. Why? Because he doesn’t understand. “The Lord addressed Job out of the storm” to help Job know that he wasn’t going to understand but that he could still trust God.
We aren’t going to understand everything. Just because our storms don’t go away when we ask God for help doesn’t mean God isn’t listening. Sometimes God chooses to lead us through the storm rather than around it.
We can, and should, cry out to the Lord when we are in distress. He will hush “the storm to a gentle breeze.” Sometimes this means He ends the storm. Sometimes it means He gives us a different outlook on the storm so that we are not afraid.
Do you remain Jesus praying in the garden? He prayed that our Father take his suffering away but that God’s Will be done in all things.
God did not take the suffering away from Jesus. Why? Because He knew that Jesus’ suffering would bring us salvation.
Are we willing to let God use our suffering to make us stronger or as a witness of faith to others?
Remember how much Jesus loves us. We see it in his Passion and death on the Cross. Seeing his love should change us… “The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one 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.”
Does knowing that Jesus died for you change your life? How?
Does knowing this make you a “new creation” as you let go of your old ways to follow Jesus?
For those who have been Christian their whole lives, sometimes it is hard to know if our lives are different for having known Jesus.
Whether we have been Christian our whole life or only for a few months, we can ask ourselves if we live our lives any different than other people who don’t know Jesus.
If our lives are not any different, we should ask ourselves how well have we listened to Jesus. When you read something in the Bible or hear something at Mass that makes you wonder if you need to change, do you try to change?
Why not?
If you do try, how much effort do you put into it? Do you ask God for help? Do you allow God to change you so that you no longer live for yourself but for Jesus who died for you?