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WORD FOR MISSION Every week CIAM offers
to lay, religious people and priests an itinerary of reflections on the
Sunday Liturgy in a missionary prespective. These are elements for a
missionary meditation, individual or in community, on the Word of God ,
which constantly and surprisingly continues to enlighten, strengthen
and sustain the missionary journey of the Church, for the life of the
World
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Trust in
Christ, who calls us to conversion and to mission
XII Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B - 25.06.2006 Job 38:1.8-11 Psalm 106 Corinthians 5:14-17 Mark 4:35-41
Reflections Right through Mark's Gospel, all sixteen chapters of it, there is a recurring question: “Who is Jesus?” In today's Gospel passage, which takes up once more the lectio continuata, Mark has the disciples asking: “Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.” The many miracles of healing and the new doctrine, taught with authority by this surprising Master (1:27) reach two peaks, one in the middle and the other at the end of Mark's Gospel, in the profession of faith of two eye-witnesses who agree with one another: the disciple Peter, who affirms “You are the Christ” (8:29), and the pagan centurion, who declares at the foot of the Cross: “Truly, this was a Son of God!” (15:39) -- an affirmation that is given immediate confirmation with the Resurrection (16:6).
Mark's Gospel, even though so short and concise, is a complete reply to the question about the identity of Jesus, with a message that is both comprehensive and overwhelming. “The catechumen in the time of Mark, the believer today, each one of us, is called to realise that God is about to take possession of his or her life, and comes towards each one with a mysterious initiative, which they are called to accept” (Carlo M. Martini). Mark's main evangelising themes give a limited space to the sermons and parables of Jesus; he prefers to highlight episodes and miracles in the life of Jesus, and describes them with lively imagination and emotion.
This can be seen clearly in the miracle of the calming of the storm (Gospel): the raging wind, the boat almost swamped, the desperate shouts of the disciples, Jesus who is sleeping quietly, his head on a cushion in the stern. A single word is enough to stop the wind. The terror of the disciples disappears, but a 'great fear' remains, because a manifestation of the Lord has been witnessed. The narrative, which contains many catechetical elements, culminates in the really heartfelt prayer of the disciples to the Master, and their profession of faith in Him, whom “even the wind and the sea obey” (v.41). Thus, they acknowledge a divine power in him, the very power of the One who marked the bounds of the sea (First Reading) and set the place where its proud waves would break (v.11).
In the culture of many peoples the sea (with its power, huge whales and marine dragons...) is often seen as an adversary of the divinity, the symbol of negative forces that are enemies to man. On the contrary, the God of the Bible is more powerful than the sea, and dominates it. Hence today's Gospel scene held a message of consolation for the first Christian communities that were beginning to experience persecution, and also an invitation to catechumens to trust in Christ and His new life-proposal. He is always Emmanuel, God with us, even in the midst of trials and storms of every kind. Even when He sleeps -- the sleep of tiredness or the sleep of death -- He shares with us our dangerous situations; He has boarded the disciples' boat and stays there. He will never be overcome: he always has the final word of life. Significantly, Mark twice uses the typical word for resurrection (‘egheiro’), to show that Jesus is awake, risen from sleep (vv.38,39).
The narrative of the miracle of the calming of the storm is also a page of biblical theology about the mystery of suffering in the world, which calls out to a God who is provident and present everywhere. All human logic falters in the face of suffering. The figure of Job (1st. Reading) is typical of this. The one anchor is to trust in God and call upon Him, even in a way that is crude but full of trust, even in desperate situations; calling out with the psalmist, with the disciples: “Master, do you not care? We are going to drown!” With the certainty that -- when and how, only He knows! -- He always has a word ready for the sea: “Quiet now! Be calm!” Recently Pope Benedict XVI reminded the world of this theme, during his visit to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. (*) From here, once again, the gaze turns towards the Cross and the Heart of Christ, who died for all. As Paul states (2nd Reading) with an powerful expression that is hard to translate, His love urges us, pushes us, overwhelms us, grasps us, dominates us, breaks our hearts, calling us to conversion and to mission (v.14).
The Pope's words (*) “How many questions arise in this place! Constantly the question comes up: Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil? The words of Psalm 44 come to mind, Israel’s lament for its woes (Ps 44:19, 22-26). This cry of anguish, which Israel raised to God in its suffering, at moments of deep distress, is also the cry for help raised by all those who in every age - yesterday, today and tomorrow - suffer for the love of God, for the love of truth and goodness. How many they are, even in our own day! We cannot peer into God’s mysterious plan - we see only piecemeal, and we would be wrong to set ourselves up as judges of God and history. ... When all is said and done, we must continue to cry out humbly yet insistently to God: Rouse yourself! Do not forget mankind, your creature! And our cry to God must also be a cry that pierces our very heart, a cry that awakens within us God’s hidden presence - so that his power, the power he has planted in our hearts, will not be buried or choked within us by the mire of selfishness, pusillanimity, indifference or opportunism”. Benedict XVI Address during the visit to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, 28-05-2006
In the steps of Missionaries - 25/6: The Servant of God Bp. Melchior de Marion Brésillac (1813-1859), Founder of the Society for African Missions (SMA). - 26/6: St. Vigilio (+405), third Bishop of Trent, evangeliser of the region with the help of three missionaries from Cappadocia (today's Turkey); he was martyred in Val Rendena. - 26/6: St. Josè Maria Escrivá de Balaguer (1902-1975), priest, founder of the Opus Dei movement and of the Society of priests of the Holy Cross. - 26/6: World Day of Solidarity and support for the Victims of Torture (UNO, 1987). - 28/6: St. Irenaeus (135-202 ca.), born in Smyrne (Asia Minor), a disciple of St. Polycarp, he became Bishop of Lyons, a great evangeliser of France and a Father of the Church. - 29/6: Sts. Peter & Paul, Apostles, founders of the Church in Rome, martyred under Nero (+64-67 ca.). - 29/6: Bl. Raimondo Lullo (Mallorca, 1235-1316), a Franciscan Tertiary, scholar and writer. He went to Africa as a missionary, to start up a fraternal dialogue with the Saracens. He was imprisoned and martyred. - 1/7: St. Oliver Plunkett (1629-1681), born in Ireland, he studied in Rome and taught Theology in the College of Propaganda Fide. He was made Archbishop of Armagh (Ireland) and martyred in London.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Edited by Fr. Romeo Ballan, mcci - Former Director of CIAM, Rome Website: www.ciam.org “Word for the Mission” ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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