12th Sunday in Ordinary Time B (23.06.2024)

1. The Lord began to speak to Job in the midst of the hurricane. This is how the first reading begins, taken from the book of Job, which does not pretend to tell the real story of a man, but is rather a sapiential reflection on the great dramas and tragedies of man and humanity. The Jewish people knew that the universal flood destroyed everything and later experienced drought, the harshness of the desert, and therefore knew what it means to suffer hunger, thirst and disease. Presenting God as the one who rules the waters, the winds and nature becomes a symbolic way of proclaiming Israel's faith in divine omnipotence. We even read here that God speaks in the midst of the hurricane, an even more incisive way of saying that the Lord alone is the being who dominates the storm to such an extent that he becomes its spokesman. Job's troubled story invites us to consider that in the life of every person all kinds of upheavals can occur; in one way or another we all have to come to terms with the problem of evil in its various forms: physical, moral, social and spiritual suffering, loneliness, failure of every dream and project, injustice and exploitation, despair and death. The temptation of mistrust led people, as it does us too, to hold God guilty of evil because it is not enough to be a good and religious person, like Job a righteous man and faithful to God, to be spared of it. Experience shows that everyone can suddenly experience disasters and misfortunes of all kinds, just as happened to Job: the tragic end of his children, the blackest misery and the sudden loss of everything he owned, and, as if that were not enough, the illness that reduced him to a revolting human larva. It is in the midst of this existential travail that Job questions God as to the reason for the suffering that befalls a good person like him. And he receives an articulate answer from the Lord, of which today's biblical text relates to us only the beginning: an answer that takes the form of a long discourse that is well worth rereading in its entirety in the book of Job. God, in a gentle and quiet, but firm and decisive manner puts man in his place: you are not the creator of the world, nor are you the ruler of every natural phenomenon, nor are you the one who ensures food for the animals and their reproduction. Do not forget, then, that the life of every human being is in God's hands, but this absolute power of his over everything does not serve to prove and exalt his omnipotence, but rather tends to arouse man's confidence because nothing escapes God even when we find ourselves in the midst of misfortune. In short, those who wrote this Old Testament book want to encourage us not to despair when we feel powerless in the face of tragic unforeseen events because even when everything collapses, we always remain in the arms of a God who is Father. No matter how violent the storms may become, he will never let us succumb to evil. Job's lesson is an invitation to put our trust in God at all times, with patience and perseverance.

2. The theme of the first reading is taken up by the gospel page that closes with this question: "Who is this then, that even the wind and the sea obey him?". The evangelist Mark shows the contrast between the violence of the storm that threatens to submerge the boat, the fright of the disciples who wake up the Master worried, and the calmness of Jesus who, awakened from sleep, with a simple intervention resolves everything. In fact, he commands the sea and the wind: "Be quiet, calm down!" and immediately restores calm. If it is true that the entire gospel of Mark tends to offer the answer to the question: "Who is the Christ?", in today's passage we find the answer because it invites us to reflect that the reason why Jesus has power over creation by calming the fury of the waters and the wind, lies in the fact that he is God, the same God who, as we read in the first reading, limited the space of the waters, made the clouds his garment and blocked the arrogance of the waves of the sea by placing the forces of nature at the service of his people. At the same time that the disciples ask themselves the question of who this man is who dominates the violence of the waters, they also give themselves the answer: he is God's envoy and, precisely for this reason, as the evangelist emphasises, from being terrified by the storm they are then filled with wonder at the calm miraculously restored. What is most surprising in this text, however, is not the disciples' fear of the storm's fury and then the fear they feel before the one they recognise as God's envoy, but rather the question Jesus asks them: "Do you still have no faith?" We are surprised that Jesus asks the disciples this question. Realising our helplessness before certain trials and difficulties that surprise us and being afraid is quite normal. Jesus' question invites us to go further: when we are overwhelmed by something absolutely shocking that puts our life in crisis, how do we react? What is our attitude in the face of storms that suddenly turn the world upside down? Like the apostles, it is natural to cry out: Master we are lost and what are you doing, you are asleep and do not care about us? The evangelist Mark wants to warn us against the risk of falling into the temptation of interpreting God's frequent silence before what makes us suffer as a sign of his indifference and abandonment. On the contrary, the gospel wants to warn us against the risk of discouragement and invites us not to be afraid because God, in spite of everything, can do everything and bring us back to calm. He also reveals the secret to us: he assures us that everything is possible if, like him, we trust in our heavenly Father, the only one who can make us able to command the stormy sea and calm the raging wind. 

Let us try to reflect: "is not our feeling of helplessness in the face of difficulties already the sign of a lack of faith"? We certainly should not take our dreams as reality and believe ourselves omnipotent in God's way because everyday reality leads us back to our human limitation. However, it is a matter of growing in faith, that is, maintaining the trust that in Jesus all things are possible to us, including dominating the power of nature and the violence of evil. Such trust pacifies the heart and opens it to new horizons of hope even when we remain in the darkness of problems.

3. Here is the good news: with the advent of Jesus, a new world is born and nothing remains as before. In the Garden of Eden God commanded Adam and Eve to work and subdue the earth, and it was not a mere figure of speech, but God's plan that will be fully realised in Jesus. And Christ before his ascension says to the apostles: "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations": he entrusts the entire planet to his disciples (Mt 28:19). Now, as St Paul states in today's second reading, the love of Christ possesses us and nothing more can separate us from this love in which we were immersed on the day of our baptism. St Paul goes on to explain: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, new things have come into being" (2 Cor 5:14-17). With Christ the new world is born: we are no longer in the world of the first creation, but must enter the world of Christ's resurrection. Baptism makes us new humanity called to live in the risen Christ an existence of solidarity, justice and sharing in the service of our brothers and sisters, imitating the Master who came not to be served but to serve. This newness of life, however, demands that we remain grafted into Christ in order to become 'new' persons, that is, renewed, and ready to face the battles against violence, injustice and hatred, which disfigure the face of humanity, counting on the power of divine love. May the Lord help us to consistently realise this Christian vocation of ours, so that, like St Paul, we may be able to affirm that it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us, and consequently be ready to run "with perseverance in the race that lies ahead, keeping our gaze fixed on Jesus, the one who gives origin to faith and brings it to fulfilment" (Heb.: 12, 2). Ultimately, if we want to be consistent with our faith to the end, the word impossible is not part of the vocabulary of Christians, because everything is possible to God: is this not the real challenge for our faith?

+Giovanni D'Ercole