June 21, 2009 12th Ordinary Sunday of the Year Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Cor. 5:14-17; Mk. 4:35-41 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/062109.shtml                 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________     Sometimes when circumstances of our lives break in upon us, it feels as if we are going to drown and probably we ask the same question that the disciples asked Jesus, "Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?" It feels as if when the waves are threatening to swamp our boat that God is asleep and is no where to be seen, no where to be found.   Thrown out of work, faced with an unexpected and frightening medical diagnosis, struggling with financial pressures, caught in a relationship which seems to be deteriorating and going no where, or a phone call that comes and all of a sudden the heart leaps in pain and anguish, we cry out in spite of ourselves, "Lord, can it be that I have looked to you, I’ve sought your help, I’ve discovered so many good things about your love, and yet here in this circumstance it seems that you don’t care, that you are not here, that you are sound asleep? Don’t you care if we drown?" And yet they did the right thing in the midst of those circumstances. They knew where to cry out. They knew who to cry out to. And the person they cried out to was the Saviour. They were discovering more and more about His love, about His compassion, about His ability, and they woke Him with their cry.   In the account with the disciples we find that after the disciples had cried out, that Jesus got up. Then he did something that even the disciples, with their experience of Jesus, had not expected. Much of the turmoil in our lives isn’t simply the turmoil from the outer circumstances, it's the turmoil that churns within us, tearing us apart. We cry out to God and then to our astonishment we discover that God comes. God is not absent, but present and God speaks to the storm that is within our turbulent and tossed spirits.   Though our questions are not finally answered yet and are left in the mystery of God’s love, still we see His comfort, His power, His presence, and His strength. His help is there for us. God, who knows our cry, knows what it means to be in a boat swamped by the storm and yet has the power to give peace and strength and help even of the midst of those difficult circumstances. The disciples called out for peace and God met them at their point of need. We may call for peace and God, through Jesus Christ, will meet us at our point of need as well. May this be true in your life this day and through the days ahead.     <<   Previous: Corpus Christi  |   Next: 13th Sunday of the year >>     Go Back to SERMONS (Year B)