Articles in the category "weekly message"

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Sunday June 21, 2009

God is in the storm On December 26, 2004, a gigantic tsunami overwhelmed twelve countries in Asia and Africa virtually and…Read full entry


Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ 'B'

Sunday June 14, 2009

I’ll drink to that! Like tilapia or chicken, a meal can absorb the dominant flavor of the occasion. Most meals in…Read full entry


Feast of the Holy Trinity 'B'

Sunday June 7, 2009

A Mystery To Be Lived It is not unusual for a spiritual director to engage “disciples” in an extended conversation about…Read full entry


Feast of Pentecost

Sunday May 31, 2009

Pentecost—An Ongoing Journey Planning a trip can be an interesting experience. Obviously preparation demands attention to details but the imagination…Read full entry


Seventh Sunday of Easter 'B'

Sunday May 24, 2009

Living the Mystery, ‘Again for the First Time’ Despite a brief interruption by the Feast of Ascension, there is a…Read full entry


Sixth Sunday of Easter 'B'

Sunday May 17, 2009

In all things, charity It continues to astound me how the Scriptures come to life over and over again under different…Read full entry


Fifth Sunday of Easter 'B'

Sunday May 10, 2009

Keep in touch It’s not unusual to hear family members or close friends at the departure gates of life say to…Read full entry


Daily Scripture

Sunday May 10, 2009

Keep in touch It’s not unusual to hear family members or close friends at the departure gates of life say to…Read full entry


Fourth Sunday of Easter 'B'

Sunday May 3, 2009

In whose name? When my sister and I were kids, my father would whistle for us when it was time to…Read full entry


Third Sunday of Easter 'B'

Sunday April 26, 2009

We are witnesses of all these things. It’s interesting how some life experiences and incidents can be expanded into small vignettes…Read full entry


Second Sunday in Easter 'B'

Sunday April 19, 2009

The Good ‘Ole’ Days At family weddings or funerals, it’s not unusual for ‘seniors’ to reminisce about the good old days,…Read full entry


Easter Sunday 2009

Sunday April 12, 2009

Mandatum As I reflected on the Easter feast, I found myself returning to the liturgy of Holy Thursday and in particular,…Read full entry


+ Holy Saturday 2009

Saturday April 11, 2009

Waiting for the mystery to unfold. Readings: Genesis 1:1-2:2 Genesis 22:1-18 Exodus 14:15-15:1 Isaiah 54:5-14 Isaiah 55:1-11 Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4…Read full entry


Good Friday 2009

Friday April 10, 2009

Just another day on the landscape of humanity? Readings: Isaiah 52:13—53:12 Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25 Hebrews 4:14-46; 5:7-9…Read full entry


Holy Thursday 2009

Thursday April 9, 2009

+ Holy Thursday The ‘eighth commandment.’ Readings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-15. After he had finished washing…Read full entry


The latest article in category weekly message

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Sunday June 21, 2009

God is in the storm

On December 26, 2004, a gigantic tsunami overwhelmed twelve countries in Asia and Africa virtually and indiscriminately wiping out entire populations within minutes.

Two years later in late summer we witnessed in never-ending kaleidoscopic frames of destruction a city reduced to ruins as wind and rain bore down on levies that succumbed to the ravages of nature’s savage attack. Relatively few were spared but the helpless poor were its greatest victims.

In between these catastrophic events were floods in Pakistan and earthquakes in Indonesia, and since those traumatic events, ships have sunk, planes have crashed and fire storms have ravaged millions of acres of forest destroying anything and everything in their path.

And though the memory has given way to more current crises that unfold day after day, the aftermath and long-range effects of all of these disasters remain vivid in minds and hearts and stored in the collective memory of everyone affected by them. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for survivors to listen to these texts and even more difficult to hear preachers and homilists call them to faith in a caring God.

But you and I also have a personal log of our own storms, some of them life threatening. We all assume that our disasters are the worst but no one gets out of this life alive. Sooner or later, the personal storm of all storms will strike and we will have no alternative but to cry out for help—“Lord do you not care that I am perishing?” I’m not sure we will be pleased with the response, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

I have heard evangelists and other preachers tell of miraculous healings hoping to inspire faith in the afflicted. Indeed, I have witnessed many ‘miraculous’ healings but I’m always cautious about applying the norm or standard of faith as a sure cure. What about all those people whose faith did not spare them? Does it mean that their faith was to weak to save them? Life and death situations are a bit more complex than this. We need to avoid a simplistic reading of these texts.

I consider it wiser to search for meaning rather than for explanations.

Jesus was not a magician. At this point in his gospel account, Mark was still in the process of identifying Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God. This story is the sixth in a series of miracle stories interspersed with parables and teachings. The evangelist connects Jesus with God’s power over the wind andthe sea. “The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: ‘Who shut within the doors of the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; … Thus far you come but no father and here shall your proud waves be stilled!”

God was in the sea and God is in the storm. The apostles reacted to Jesus, “Who then is this whom even the wind and sea obey?”

Mark was a very creative storyteller and catechist. He knew that his listeners would look beyond the story to the deeper truth, indeed the hidden reality far beneath the surface of the sea to the God who is also hidden in the midst of our own storms. God doesn’t bale us out of our difficult moments but upholds us in the midst of them.

As a young boy when I complained of how hard life was at times, especially in school, my dad would say, “Sometimes we just have to ride out the difficult times.” He didn’t brush me off with a cute or simplistic comment. In many ways, he was speaking words of wisdom to the simple. He was absolutely correct. Sometimes we just need to ‘ride out the storms of life.’

No, not every catastrophe or personal disaster ends in death but some do and some day, one will do us in and it won’t be due to our lack of faith.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul was struggling with the chaos of death, not only in connection with is own mortality but with the death of Jesus who was not spared by the Father. “Indeed, he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

However, we must take care not to read into Paul’s words what he is not stating, namely, that Jesus’ death was not his goal. Rather he came to live for us and for all humanity and it was in this commitment to life, that he was forced to surrender his life. He was ‘faithful’ until the end despite the consequences imposed by those who rejected him.

I think that faith gives us a lens through which we are able to view life with all its ambiguities, uncertainties, adversities and even its defeats.

May he give us
all the courage we need
to go the way he shepherds us.

That when he calls
we may go unfrightened.

If he bids us come to him
across the waters,
that unfrightened we may go.

And if he bids us climb a hill,
may we not notice that it is a hill,
mindful only of
the happiness of his company.

He made us for himself,
that we should travel with him
and see him at the last
in his unveiled beauty
in the abiding city where
he is light
and happiness
+and endless home_. [Bede Jarrett, 1881-1934]
[ The Complete Book of Christian Prayer, The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995, New York, NY

“So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old order has passed away; behold new things have come.”


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