The Pastor’s Reflections
This is a stormy kind of Sunday! In the first reading of the day we see Job caught in a spiritual crisis. His friends have ridiculed him for his unfailing faith and trust in God. Job has begun to wonder why God has allowed so many disasters to befall him. He’s wondering what God’s plan for him might be. What was the reason for his suffering? He’s caught in a storm of doubt.
In this passage God reveals his power and majesty to Job through a series of poetic images. “Who shut the doors of the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands?” The bottom line is this. God is telling him: “Job, look and see. I created everything, and I maintain its existence! Do you think you can ever fathom the depth of my wisdom? Trust me, Job!”
The gospel passage, Mark’s account of the storm at sea, pictures Jesus sleeping at the stern of the boat when a sudden squall threatens to sink it. Terrified, the disciples wake him up. He simply tells the wind to cease and the water to calm. But he’s concerned: “Why are you terrified? Do you not have faith yet?” Jesus is reassuring them. Storms will always come. I’m with you even when you think I’m sleeping. Just trust me.
Let’s connect these two passages using St. Paul’s message to the Corinthians where he articulates the dynamic nature of redemption. Redemption isn’t an event of the past. Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross. He redeemed the world through the power of his love – his sacrificial love. We remember this in every mass we celebrate when, after the consecration of the bread and cup, we sing “When we eat his bread and drink this cup we proclaim the death of the lord until he comes again.” Christ’s sacrificial love is eternally being poured out for every person who ever was, is, and will be. Sacrificial love is redeeming love.
Today we’re being asked to trust Jesus who said he would be with us until the end of time. Today we’re invited to model his sacrificial love in our lives, even in the midst of our personal storms. United with him in this way, we enter his eternal moment of redemption and share in his work of redemption.
