The Stilling
The Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021
June 20, 2021
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Job 38:1, 8-11; Psalm 107; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41
We have two great stilling the storm passages to contemplate. In the first reading, God responds to Job’s plea for an answer to his suffering, and God makes it known that God possesses power to control natural and supernatural elements and to quiet the suffering heart. Jesus makes known that he likewise possesses God’s power as the earth is subject to him. The disciples would have known that God’s power was working through Jesus, and yet being in the presence of God is terrifying. They are coming to know that Jesus of Nazareth is more than a wise sage or a healer of physical ailments. They realize the extent of his power is just beginning to be unleashed.
We know life is hard and sometimes circumstances in our lives are beyond our control. We cannot control the timing of events and we experience heartbreaks and disappoints. We can barely solve our problems or that of others who are near and dear to us. Sometimes we continue to give to others and it seems like everything that we try doesn’t seem to hit the right note to alleviate the pain of someone we love. Like Job, we petition God to help calm the storm, and many times there doesn’t seem to be an answer. Sometimes it seems to be too much.
This might be a time to say to God, “Tell me where you are in the midst of my day. Tell me where you are present to me. It is not that I notice where you are, but where you reveal to me the times and places that you see me and notice me. As I may not be able to see you because my pain it too great, inform me of those moments when you were present to me in my suffering.” Sometimes when we notice that someone else can see our pain, that is enough for the moment, and our hearts become stilled. That solidarity from God to us is enough for us to settle ourselves down because we no longer feel alone in our suffering.
God’s power to simply be with us, patient and without judgment, calms our storms. God is able to share our concerns and have sympathy for our ordeals, and the fact that God takes the time to bother to stand by us fills us with serenity. The storms still rage around us but we are able to respond with greater resolve to bear with the pain. Through it all, we see that God doesn’t turn away from us but hangs in there with us until we come to a place of balance. We then realize that we can bear most things well. More storms will beset us; enemies will rise up; waves will crash upon us, but as we know that again and again God sees what we are experiencing and continues to hold us up, we can still ourselves until the winds cease and the storms pass, and then we can turn to the Lord and behold the majesty before us, and we give thanks. The presence of God not only stills us, but it gets us to the other side.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Genesis 12) I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.
Tuesday: (Genesis 13) Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support them if they stayed together; their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. There were quarrels between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and those of Lot’s.
Wednesday: (Genesis 15) When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces. It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River the Euphrates.”
Thursday: (Isaiah 49) The LORD called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me. You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory.
Friday (Genesis 17) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said: “I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless.” God further said to Abraham: “As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her.
Saturday (Genesis 18) They asked him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” He replied, “There in the tent.” One of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son.” Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, just behind him.
Gospel:
Monday: (Matthew 7) Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
Tuesday: (Matthew 7) Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces. Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
Wednesday (Matthew 7) Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. So by their fruits you will know them.
Thursday (Luke 1) When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her.
Friday (Matthew 8) And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I will do it. Be made clean.”
Saturday (Matthew 8) When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”
Saints of the Week
June 21: Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J., priest (1568-1591), gave up a great inheritance to join the Jesuits in 1585 in his dreams of going to the missions. However, when a plague hit Rome, Gonzaga served the sick and dying in hospitals where he contracted the plague and died within three months. He is a patron saint of youth.
June 22: Paulinus of Nola, bishop (353-431) was a prominent lawyer who married a Spaniard and was baptized. Their infant son died while in Spain. He became a priest and was sent to Nola, near Naples, where he lived a semi-monastic life and helped the poor and pilgrims.
June 22: John Fisher, bishop and martyr (1469-1535) taught theology at Cambridge University and became the University Chancellor and bishop of Rochester. Fisher defended the queen against Henry VIII who wanted the marriage annulled. Fisher refused to sign the Act of Succession. When the Pope made Fisher a cardinal, the angry king beheaded him.
June 22: Thomas More, martyr (1478-1535) was a gifted lawyer, Member of Parliament, scholar, and public official. He was reluctant to serve Cardinal Woolsey at court and he resigned after he opposed the king’s Act of Succession, which would allow him to divorce his wife. He was imprisoned and eventually beheaded.
June 24: Nativity of John the Baptist (first century) was celebrated on June 24th to remind us that he was six months older than Jesus, according to Luke. This day also serves to remind us that, as Christ is the light of the world, John must decrease just as the daylight diminishes. John’s birth is told by Luke. He was the son of the mature Elizabeth and the dumbstruck Zechariah. When John was named, Zechariah’s tongue was loosened and he sang the great Benedictus.
This Week in Jesuit History
- June 20, 1626. The martyrdom in Nagasaki, Japan, of Blesseds Francis Pacheco, John Baptist Zola, Vincent Caun, Balthasar De Torres, Michael Tozo, Gaspar Sadamatzu, John Kinsaco, Paul Xinsuki, and Peter Rinscei.
- June 21, 1591. The death of St Aloysius Gonzaga, who died from the plague, which he caught while attending the sick.
- June 22, 1611. The first arrival of the Jesuit fathers in Canada, sent there at the request of Henry IV of France.
- June 23, 1967. Saint Louis University's Board of Trustees gathered at Fordyce House for the first meeting of the expanded Board of Trustees. SLU was the first Catholic university to establish a Board of Trustees with a majority of lay members.
- June 24, 1537. Ignatius, Francis Xavier, and five of the companions were ordained priests in Venice, Italy.
- June 25, 1782. The Jesuits in White Russia were permitted by the Empress Catherine to elect a General. They chose Fr. Czerniewicz. He took the title of Vicar General, with the powers of the General.
- June 26, 1614. By a ruse of the Calvinists, the book, "Defensio Fidei" by Francis Suarez was condemned by the French Parliament. In addition, in England James I ordered the book to be publicly burned.
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