The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said : And 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!
Psalms 107(106) 23-24.25-26.28-29.30-31.
Some went off to sea in ships, plied their trade on the deep waters. They saw the works of the LORD, the wonders of God in the deep. He spoke and roused a storm wind; it tossed the waves on high. They rose up to the heavens, sank to the depths; their hearts trembled at the danger.
In their distress they cried to the LORD, who brought them out of their peril, Hushed the storm to a murmur; the waves of the sea were stilled. They rejoiced that the sea grew calm, that God brought them to the harbor they longed for. Let them thank the LORD for such kindness, such wondrous deeds for mere mortals.
Second Letter to the Corinthians 5,14-17
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.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 4,35-41. On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: "Let us cross to the other side." Leaving the crowd, they took him 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?"
POPE FRANCIS ANGELUS 20 June 2021 Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Buongiorno!
Today’s liturgy tells the episode of the storm calmed by Jesus (Mk 4:35-41). The boat in which the disciples are crossing the lake is beaten by the wind and the waves and they fear they will sink. Jesus is with them on the boat, yet he is in the stern asleep on the cushion. Filled with fear, the disciples cry out to him: “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” (v. 38).
And quite often we too, beaten by the trials of life, have cried out to the Lord: “Why do you remain silent and do nothing for me?”. Especially when it seems we are sinking, because love or the project in which we had laid great hopes disappears; or when we are at the mercy of unrelenting waves of anxiety; or when we feel we are drowning in problems or lost amid the sea of life, with no course and no harbour. Or even, in moments in which the strength to go forward fails us, because we have no job, or an unexpected diagnosis makes us fear for our health or that of a loved one. There are many moments when we feel we are in a storm; when we feel we are almost done in.
In these situations and in many others, we too feel suffocated by fear and, like the disciples, risk losing sight of the most important thing. In the boat, in fact, even if he is sleeping, Jesus is there, and he shares with his own all that is happening. If on the one hand his slumber surprises us, on the other, it puts us to the test. The Lord is there, present; indeed, he waits — so to speak — for us to engage him, to invoke him, to put him at the centre of what we are experiencing. His slumber causes us to wake up. Because to be disciples of Jesus, it is not enough to believe God is there, that he exists, but we must put ourselves out there with him; we must also raise our voice with him. Hear this: we must cry out to him. Prayer is often a cry: “Lord, save me!”. I was watching, on the programme “In his Image”, today, the Day of Refugees, many who come in large boats and at the moment of drowning cry out: “Save us!”. In our life too the same thing happens: “Lord, save us!”, and prayer becomes a cry.
Today we can ask ourselves: what are the winds that beat against my life? What are the waves that hinder my navigation, and put my spiritual life, my family life, even my psychological life in danger? Let us say all this to Jesus; let us tell him everything. He wants this; he wants us to grab hold of him to find shelter from the unexpected waves in life. The Gospel recounts that the disciples approach Jesus, wake him and speak to him (cf. v. 38). This is the beginning of our faith: to recognize that alone we are unable to stay afloat; that we need Jesus like sailors need the stars to find their course. Faith begins from believing that we are not enough for ourselves, from feeling in need of God. When we overcome the temptation to close ourselves off, when we overcome the false religiosity that does not want to disturb God, when we cry out to him, he can work wonders in us. It is the gentle and extraordinary power of prayer, which works miracles.
Jesus, begged by the disciples, calms the wind and waves. And he asks them a question, a question which also pertains to us: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” (v. 40). The disciples were gripped with fear, because they were focused on the waves more than on looking at Jesus. And fear leads us to look at the difficulties, the awful problems, and not to look at the Lord, who many times is sleeping. It is this way for us too: how often we remain fixated on problems rather than going to the Lord and casting our concerns to him! How often we leave the Lord in a corner, at the bottom of the boat of life, to wake him only in a moment of need! Today, let us ask for the grace of a faith that never tires of seeking the Lord, of knocking at the door of his Heart. May the Virgin Mary, who in her life never stopped trusting in God, reawaken in us the basic need of entrusting ourselves to him each day.
FAUSTI - "Why are you so frightened? Have You still no Faith?" Jesus asks His own. They have heard His Word. But have they received it as it really is, as the Word of God working in him who believes? (1Th 2:13). Dominated by their own thoughts and fears, they do not yet have faith. They do not have the courage to go deep with Him. Baptism is to be associated with Him, in His death and in His Resurrection. This narrative is a baptismal exercise to see if the Word has produced His fruit: the confidence to surrender one's life with Him sleeping and awakening. On the same day of the ''parables'' the disciples fail the test. But the experiment is not in vain; it brings out the difficulties of their hearts, which are late and slow to believe. The Word will have to enter into all their fears. But first it has to highlight them, or rather arouse them, bring them out into the open, in order to overcome them. It is night, on the stormy sea Jesus sleeps peacefully. His own, who are with Him, in His own difficulties, cry out in anguish. They do not understand this sleep, image of His abandonment to death. By sleeping, He realizes the trust expressed in the parables. The disciples, on the contrary, are at the mercy of despair. The Word, which fell on the path, did not take root. It entered superficially, but underneath there is the stone of their heart, which prevents them from trusting in the Lord. This distrust can be dissolved only when the question is answered: "Who is This One?" The apparent inaction of His sleep is the greatest action on our behalf . He sleeps to be with us even in the dark valley . And it is precisely here that He rises with all the Power of JHWH, calming every storm , even the storm of our heart.
Jesus is represented to us in His profound mystery: at night, while He sleeps He is the scattered seed, the hidden Light, the automatic strength of the Kingdom, the littleness of the grain of mustard seed. But the seed germinates by dying, the light shines in the darkness, the strength wins with calm, the smallness becomes a great tree. We will see this only when He awakens. The disciples ask themselves : "Who can This Be? that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" This is the fundamental question of the Gospel. The disciple is the one who , after listening to the Word, entrusts himself to Jesus who sleeps, beyond His own fears. On His Word he accepts to go into the deep with Him - the alternative is to go into the deep without Him! - in the hope of emerging with Him to new life.
Book of Job 38,1.8-11
RispondiEliminaThe LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said :
And 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!
Psalms 107(106)
23-24.25-26.28-29.30-31.
Some went off to sea in ships, plied their trade on the deep waters.
They saw the works of the LORD, the wonders of God in the deep.
He spoke and roused a storm wind; it tossed the waves on high.
They rose up to the heavens, sank to the depths; their hearts trembled at the danger.
In their distress they cried to the LORD, who brought them out of their peril,
Hushed the storm to a murmur; the waves of the sea were stilled.
They rejoiced that the sea grew calm, that God brought them to the harbor they longed for.
Let them thank the LORD for such kindness, such wondrous deeds for mere mortals.
Second Letter
to the Corinthians 5,14-17
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.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Mark
4,35-41.
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: "Let us cross to the other side."
Leaving the crowd, they took him 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?"
POPE FRANCIS ANGELUS 20 June 2021
RispondiEliminaDear Brothers and Sisters,
Buongiorno!
Today’s liturgy tells the episode of the storm calmed by Jesus (Mk 4:35-41). The boat in which the disciples are crossing the lake is beaten by the wind and the waves and they fear they will sink. Jesus is with them on the boat, yet he is in the stern asleep on the cushion. Filled with fear, the disciples cry out to him: “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” (v. 38).
And quite often we too, beaten by the trials of life, have cried out to the Lord: “Why do you remain silent and do nothing for me?”. Especially when it seems we are sinking, because love or the project in which we had laid great hopes disappears; or when we are at the mercy of unrelenting waves of anxiety; or when we feel we are drowning in problems or lost amid the sea of life, with no course and no harbour. Or even, in moments in which the strength to go forward fails us, because we have no job, or an unexpected diagnosis makes us fear for our health or that of a loved one. There are many moments when we feel we are in a storm; when we feel we are almost done in.
In these situations and in many others, we too feel suffocated by fear and, like the disciples, risk losing sight of the most important thing. In the boat, in fact, even if he is sleeping, Jesus is there, and he shares with his own all that is happening. If on the one hand his slumber surprises us, on the other, it puts us to the test. The Lord is there, present; indeed, he waits — so to speak — for us to engage him, to invoke him, to put him at the centre of what we are experiencing. His slumber causes us to wake up. Because to be disciples of Jesus, it is not enough to believe God is there, that he exists, but we must put ourselves out there with him; we must also raise our voice with him. Hear this: we must cry out to him. Prayer is often a cry: “Lord, save me!”. I was watching, on the programme “In his Image”, today, the Day of Refugees, many who come in large boats and at the moment of drowning cry out: “Save us!”. In our life too the same thing happens: “Lord, save us!”, and prayer becomes a cry.
Today we can ask ourselves: what are the winds that beat against my life? What are the waves that hinder my navigation, and put my spiritual life, my family life, even my psychological life in danger? Let us say all this to Jesus; let us tell him everything. He wants this; he wants us to grab hold of him to find shelter from the unexpected waves in life. The Gospel recounts that the disciples approach Jesus, wake him and speak to him (cf. v. 38). This is the beginning of our faith: to recognize that alone we are unable to stay afloat; that we need Jesus like sailors need the stars to find their course. Faith begins from believing that we are not enough for ourselves, from feeling in need of God. When we overcome the temptation to close ourselves off, when we overcome the false religiosity that does not want to disturb God, when we cry out to him, he can work wonders in us. It is the gentle and extraordinary power of prayer, which works miracles.
Jesus, begged by the disciples, calms the wind and waves. And he asks them a question, a question which also pertains to us: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” (v. 40). The disciples were gripped with fear, because they were focused on the waves more than on looking at Jesus. And fear leads us to look at the difficulties, the awful problems, and not to look at the Lord, who many times is sleeping. It is this way for us too: how often we remain fixated on problems rather than going to the Lord and casting our concerns to him! How often we leave the Lord in a corner, at the bottom of the boat of life, to wake him only in a moment of need! Today, let us ask for the grace of a faith that never tires of seeking the Lord, of knocking at the door of his Heart. May the Virgin Mary, who in her life never stopped trusting in God, reawaken in us the basic need of entrusting ourselves to him each day.
FAUSTI - "Why are you so frightened? Have You still no Faith?" Jesus asks His own. They have heard His Word. But have they received it as it really is, as the Word of God working in him who believes? (1Th 2:13).
RispondiEliminaDominated by their own thoughts and fears, they do not yet have faith. They do not have the courage to go deep with Him. Baptism is to be associated with Him, in His death and in His Resurrection.
This narrative is a baptismal exercise to see if the Word has produced His fruit:
the confidence to surrender one's life with Him sleeping and awakening.
On the same day of the ''parables'' the disciples fail the test.
But the experiment is not in vain; it brings out the difficulties of their hearts, which are late and slow to believe.
The Word will have to enter into all their fears.
But first it has to highlight them, or rather arouse them, bring them out into the open, in order to overcome them.
It is night, on the stormy sea Jesus sleeps peacefully. His own, who are with Him, in His own difficulties, cry out in anguish. They do not understand this sleep, image of His abandonment to death. By sleeping, He realizes the trust expressed in the parables.
The disciples, on the contrary, are at the mercy of despair.
The Word, which fell on the path, did not take root. It entered superficially, but underneath there is the stone of their heart, which prevents them from trusting in the Lord.
This distrust can be dissolved only when the question is answered: "Who is This One?"
The apparent inaction of His sleep is the greatest action on our behalf .
He sleeps to be with us even in the dark valley . And it is precisely here that He rises with all the Power of JHWH, calming every storm , even the storm of our heart.
Jesus is represented to us in His profound mystery: at night, while He sleeps He is the scattered seed, the hidden Light, the automatic strength of the Kingdom, the littleness of the grain of mustard seed.
But the seed germinates by dying, the light shines in the darkness, the strength wins with calm, the smallness becomes a great tree. We will see this only when He awakens.
The disciples ask themselves : "Who can This Be? that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"
This is the fundamental question of the Gospel.
The disciple is the one who , after listening to the Word, entrusts himself to Jesus who sleeps, beyond His own fears. On His Word he accepts to go into the deep with Him - the alternative is to go into the deep without Him! - in the hope of emerging with Him to new life.