12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading: Mark 4: 35-41

35 With the coming of evening that same day, Jesus said to them, 'Let us cross over to the other side.'

36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him.

37 Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped.

38 But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep.

39 They woke him and said to him, 'Master, do you not care? We are going down!' And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Quiet now! Be calm!' And the wind dropped, and all was calm again.

4 0Then he said to them, 'Why are you so fright­ened? How is it that you have no faith?'

41Thiey were filled with awe and said to one-another, 'Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.'

Meditation

Unlike the passages of the last two weeks, this Sunday's passage is, in one sense, a single story and we must read it as a whole. But in another sense, it tells two stories - one of Jesus and one of the apostles. Each has its movement that we can enter into, and there is a striking contrast between the attitudes shown in each.

As you meditate, observe how you are situating yourself in relation to the passage: which of the two stories are you identify­ing with, the one of Jesus or the one of the apostles?

Is it your personal story or the story of someone who has touched your life? Does Jesus remind you of some person or of God himself? Is this something that is happening now or something that has happened in the past?

Answering these questions will help you enter into the story.

Lord, humanity finds itself in a bad way:
- recurrent famines in parts of Africa and surplus food in Europe;
- an unending spiral of violence in the Middle East;
- no way out of poverty and unemployment in every country;
- the constant threat of nuclear disaster and terrorism.

The waves are breaking into our boat so that it is almost swamped and we have the impression that we are going down.

All this time the values of Jesus are there within our reach - compassion, trust, love of enemies, honesty - but we have left them in the back of the boat, unused.

We pray that we may turn to these values in this moment of need, that like the apostles we may discover with awe that these values can command the winds and the seas.

Lord, we thank you for the great people of faith we have known, an uncle or aunt, a little tradesman in the village, the granny of the community, the kind of person who could sleep comfortably because they trust in you.

How often we have been condescending towards them, taking charge of them as the apostles took charge of Jesus, and they went along with us.

Then it began to blow a gale, and we felt we were going down.
We turned to them and experienced their power.

Lord, modern people have confidence in brute force; we look on trust as weak and ineffectual.

We thank you that you sent us someone like Gandhi.
He showed the world that trust is a mighty power, one that could rebuke the wind and the sea, and say to them, 'Quiet now! Be calm!' and the whole world was in awe, saying, 'Who can this be? Even the winds and the sea obey him.

Lord, we who are leaders in the church, we talk easily about faith. But every one in a while you say to us, 'Let us cross over to the other side' and make us leave the crowd behind us
- inviting us to make a retreat;
- letting us experience failure or infidelity. Then, on the open sea, without our usual supports, we experience how frail we are, how easily we could go down. That is a moment of grace for us as we realise that we have been living on the surface of ourselves, trusting in success and popularity, and deep within ourselves, Jesus was asleep.

Now with him awake we have the resources to calm the winds and the sea.