Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 20, 2021
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 95
Reading I
The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said:
Who shut within doors the sea,
when it burst forth from the womb;
when I made the clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling bands?
When I set limits for it
and fastened the bar of its door,
and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stilled!
Responsorial Psalm
107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31
- (1b) Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
They who sailed the sea in ships,
trading on the deep waters,
These saw the works of the LORD
and his wonders in the abyss.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
His command raised up a storm wind
which tossed its waves on high.
They mounted up to heaven; they sank to the depths;
their hearts melted away in their plight.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
They cried to the LORD in their distress;
from their straits he rescued them,
He hushed the storm to a gentle breeze,
and the billows of the sea were stilled.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
They rejoiced that they were calmed,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his kindness
and his wondrous deeds to the children of men.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
The love of Christ impels us,
once we have come to the conviction that one died for all;
therefore, all have died.
He indeed 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.
Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh;
even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh,
yet now we know him so no longer.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.
Alleluia
- Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has risen in our midst
God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:
“Let us cross to the other side.”
Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.
And other boats were with him.
A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
He woke up,
rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?”
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
Reflection: THE LORD IS IN CONTROL
Boats those days, particularly fishing boats, were, simple, small, and shaky affairs, not like the yachts or the ships of today. Even relatively small storms could be dangerous. And if a great windstorm arose, surely the boats rocked and became dangerous with water swamping in from all sides. It was hardly possible that Jesus could be at the stem sound asleep. May be, he was pretending to sleep, aware of what is happening, just to test the faith of the disciples! The Fathers of the Church see in this incident a reflection of what was happening to the nascent Church when the Gospel of Mark was being written, around the mid-sixties. It was the time of the great persecution in Rome and elsewhere, when Peter's boat, the Church, was dangerously being rocked by a seemingly unmanageable storm. And the Lord seemed to be asleep! The evangelist wants to re-assure the Church that the Lord is in control, and that the storm will pass, not without some wounds, but eventually to safety! In our lives too, God seems to be mostly asleep. Or is it our faith that is dormant, unaware that God never sleeps?