OMELIE / Omelie EN

20 giu 2021

20/06/2021 – 12th Sunday in O. T. - B

20/06/2021 – 12th Sunday in O. T. - B

Reading 1 JOB 38,1.8-11 Psalm 106/107 Reading 2 2COR 5,14-17 Gospel MK 4,35-41

This time a passage of the Sacred Scriptures, or better two, are helping us to answer the apostles' surprised question. They have seen that their Master has given an order to the wind and the waves of the sea, and their agitation, which was dangerous to everyone, have subsided.

Who is the one who can command these forces of nature? Why the latter are obeying Him like they are afraid of Him? Men are scared of the waves and the wind, while the waves and the wind are listening to Him. Who can He possibly be? Job and the psalmist are answering and they solve our doubt. The Psalm says, talking about God: “he hushed the storm to a gentle breeze, and the billows of the sea were stilled”. And in the book of Job God Himself introduced Himself as the one who commands the forces of nature, the ones which are most dreaded by men. Then Jesus' order is God’s, Jesus' mouth is God’s mouth, Jesus' will is God’s: it is clear, we should have it very well understood, Jesus is God.

It has not been easy for the apostles to reach this conclusion. It is not easy for us too. It is not easy to have clear that God is not the one frightening the wind and the sea, but the one who loves men and defends them even from the wind and the sea. Jesus is God alright, but not the omnipotent God, meaning that He can do everything men would like to do in order to be respected, but not a God who has to be feared, a God who loves, who listens to the prayers of His friends and grants them, despite their faith being weak and childish.

The experience lived by the twelve on the boat has left them dumbfounded: they were afraid because they could see themselves pray of the wind, enemy of their journey and their life; they were scared because the water was pouring in their boat soaking them and tiring them out. They are surprised even about their Master's rebuke. Why did he rebuke them for their fear? Why did He accuse them of not having enough faith? What is this faith Jesus is expecting from them?

In front of Jesus you cannot be afraid, not even when He is sleeping, not even when it seems like He is not aware of the danger. He is not just any man, a sinner like us. He is truly a man, who is labouring and gets tired, who sleeps and wakes up like us, but He is the Son of the living God, sent by the Father in order to give us His love and accompany us to meet Him. He is God!

The boat with the worried, afraid and begging apostles is the Church, which still today is in danger and threatened: but it cannot be afraid, and we, who are members of the Church, even calling the Lord to our aid, do so trustfully, positively, and peacefully: He, even if it looks like He is sleeping, is our Lord and Master, He is our Bread and our Life. Who or what should we be afraid of? The Devil is not stronger than Him, even if it is allowed him to test us. We know Jesus not as a man anymore, but as our God! And we live for Him: the trust in Him makes us new, new creatures who live in this world not as belonging to it, but as citizens of heaven already.

Saint Paul is inviting us to look at Jesus not in a Human way, even if He is a man like us. We will look at Him with the Father’s eyes. We have already received a divine heart to love Him as His Son and our Lord, as the presence of the fullness of the divine love.

Even more, the apostle is inviting us to look at all men with this same approach: they are in God’s image, despite it being incomplete or ruined by the sin of the world. We will look at them with sympathy, because all of them are a gift from our God. We are renewed by Him and so our eyes too, while looking, are loving, just as Jesus’. We are possessed by Christ’s love: we are dead then to our selfishness, alive and available to be witness of His perfect love. Let us give thanks for this gift which surrounds us and makes us win all the fear of every obstacle which might try to overcome us.