Road to Emmaus Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jun 17, 2009

First Reading – Job 38:1, 8-11

Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31

Second Reading – 2 Cor. 5:14-17

Gospel Reading – Mk. 4:35-41

 

“Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41). This verse concludes the Gospel readings for the Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time.

 

A similar though rhetorical question is asked of Job by the Lord who spoke to him “out of the storm” (Job 38:1). “Who shut in the sea with doors…and said, ‘thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed?” (Job 38:8a, 11).

 

Who does the wind and sea obey? Who stays the proud waves of the sea? The clear answer to both questions is God, the one who created the sea out of nothing. “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered he called Seas. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:9-10).

 

Mark is trying to show us that Christ is indeed God himself, the creator of entire cosmos, he who can bring order out of chaos. The Church is doing the same by bringing together the reading from Mark with the reading from Job. Jesus is truly divine.

 

One thing to note from the Gospel reading is put this way by Mary Healy in her book, The Gospel of Mark: “He [Jesus] does not pray that God would calm the storm, but commands it himself with sovereign authority: Quiet! Be still! (literally, ‘Be muzzled!’).”

 

Old Testament background

As we have seen with the book of Job, other parts of the Old Testament, in particular the Psalms, attribute to God alone authority over the sea. "You [Lord] rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them" (Psalm 89:9).

 

"Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty!" (Psalm 93:4).

 

Then we come to the Responsorial Psalm for this Sunday, taken from Psalm 107:23-31. "Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from distress; he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed" (v. 29). I encourage you reread the whole of the Responsorial Psalm. With this we come to the understanding that Jesus is in fact God.

 

Jesus, a greater Jonah

Jesus, in the Gospels, is depicted as a new and greater Jonah. Jesus says of himself, “…something greater than Jonah is here” (Luke 11:32).

This is shown in another way that is of interest. It has to do with some parallels between what happened with Jonah and Jesus’ calming of the sea in Mark 4:35-41. In both events:

1. They are setting sail on a boat.
2. They are caught in a storm.
3. Someone is found asleep.
4. There are frightened sailors.
5. The sailors call upon the Lord.
6. Jonah, and then Jesus, is instrumental in bringing about a great calm.
7. The sailors marvel at the outcome.

The difference we see in these two events is that it was not Jonah who calmed the sea, but the Lord. Then we have Jesus, the Lord, being the one who calms the sea. Here we have two miracles over nature performed by God.

(For more on Jesus as the new and greater Jonah please read my comments on the reading for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time).

(Column continues below)

 

Further reflections

Of course there are other things we can learn from this passage from the Gospel of Mark. St. Augustine said that this episode at sea signifies the drama of the Christian life. “All of God’s children embark with Christ on a life that is full of dangerous storms, especially attacks from evil spirits and temptations of the flesh. We must learn to trust in Christ daily, since he alone can restrain these forces and bring us to the safe harbor of salvation.”

 

During these times of dangerous storms, one of the most important things we can do is what the Responsorial Psalm speaks of: “They cried out to Lord in their trouble…” (107:28a). We cannot navigate the savage storm of life on our own. We cannot resist the wickedness and snares of the devil by our own power. Christ alone, who is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, is the one who can “deliver us from evil.”