Readings and meditation on the Word of God on the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 20, 2021
1st reading is delivered by Jessica Putri, 2nd reading delivered by Bryan Ko from Saint John Bosco Church in Jakarta, Indonesia, Gospel reading and meditation delivered by Father Peter Tukan, SDB from the office of Social Communication of Salesian in Indonesia.
The reading is taken from the book of Job
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!
The Word of the Lord.
The reading is taken from the Second Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians
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.
The Word of the Lord.
The reading is taken from the holy Gospel according to Mark
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?”
The Gospel of the Lord.
The theme for our meditation on this 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time is: Fear of God. There is a principle difference regarding this fear, namely the fear of God which is totally different from the fear of everything else in the world. For those who do not have fear of God, the good advice proposed by the three readings today is don’t be afraid! We must fear of God.
We can call this fear of God as a holy or sacred fear. Among the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit that are endowed on a baptized person at the moment of reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation, the 7th gift is actually the gift of the fear of God. What does it mean to fear the Lord? It is a positive meaning, namely obedience or faithfulness to the One who rules us with His love and complements us with mercy and all goodness.
A person whose life truly practices the fear of God, he always supports himself with vigilance, preventive system and attentiveness, so that his words and deeds do not hurt the heart of the Lord. So he is actually afraid to disappoint God, to humiliate and even to destroy God in all His might and goodness.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that all things in the world that are sure to disturb or complicate our physical and spiritual life, we don’t need to be afraid of. The main reason is because He is always with us. He has overcome all that seems to cause us fear. The prophet Job is described in the first reading as the one who was so afraid of natural threats, namely storms of fierce sea waves.
Likewise, the apostles at the lake felt so afraid of the threat of a terrible typhoon. The frightening natural disaster is a picture of the various great terrors that threaten human life. Nevertheless, we all know that God is with us. Fear in this world can be of various kinds, for example people are afraid of failure, afraid of losing their position, fear of damaging their good names, worrying about tomorrow, fear of not getting a life-partner and so on. All of this we must be able to overcome by having the Lord Jesus Christ who is always with us.
So we actually only have one fear, namely that the Lord we actually have and who is with us should be missing from our lives. This is the true meaning of the fear of God. This teaching requires us to always be obedient and faithful to God, meaning that we do not follow other powers and depend our lives on them. In other words, following the advice of Saint Paul today, we no longer live for ourselves, but for Jesus Christ who had died and risen for us.
Let’s pray. In the name of the Father…. O loving Father in heaven, may this Sunday celebration make us stronger and more faithful to You and that we will become signs of love and hope for our neighbors. Our Father who art in heaven… In the name of the Father…