Homily: Twelfth Sunday Year B

Reading 1: Job was once rich, comfortable, respected, blessed. Then he lost everything, became an object of mockery, afflicted with physical problems.  His friends said it was because of some sin of Job. But Job maintained his innocence. He wanted to know why God had done all this to him, since he was innocent. He wanted God to give an account of himself to Job. The creature confronting the Creator, the pot it’s maker, the finite against the infinite.

God’s response was profound and simple. Remember who I am and who you are. Where were you, God says, when I created the universe and calmed the power of the stormy sea? In all the questions God put before Job, Job had no answers. He finally realizes that God is God and that in his humanity he understood so little of all reality.

Have we been so arrogant or audacious before God? Have we ever been angry with God and demanded to know why such and such was happening in our life? Have we ever reversed roles, thinking we had a right to demand from God answers? Sometimes we forget who we really are in relationship to God and who God is to us.

At the end Job repents of his arrogance and lack of understanding. He submitted to the will of God without the need of further understanding.

Gospel: Though the apostles heard Jesus’ teachings and saw the many signs and wonders, they still did not know who Jesus really was. They were committed to him as disciples. They followed and learned from him, but they could walk away at any time, as some did. Up to that point he was not the Lord of their life, the center of their existence.

So when they experienced a moment of test, they showed they were more concerned about their own safety rather than him; they did not believe that as long as he was with them, he would care for them in all circumstances. They panic as the storm worsened. “Do you not care that we are perishing?” Their focus was on themselves, not on Jesus. 

How many times have we experienced various storms in our lives and have felt that Jesus was asleep or that he was not concerned? Like the Apostles, we fail to remember that God is always with us for a purpose. God is always aware of what is happening in our lives. In those difficult moments, we are called to trust that God has a plan that we don’t understand. It is a time to entrust our lives to God, who is the source of all things.  

Reading 2: Paul provides us with the central mystery of our faith and its consequences in our lives. Christ died for all to remove our alienation from God as a result of sin. Because of his death and resurrection, we are a new creation. The old things—that which led us into sin—have passed away and the new life of relationship with Christ is present in us. As a result, love of Christ for what he has done for us should motivate all we do and are.

The way we look at things should have changed.  In other words, a conversion of heart and mind and way of life should have taken place. Before I may have seen and known Jesus as an historical figure, as someone others have told me about, as one among many.  Now, after all he has done for and in me, do I know him as the Lord and Savior of my life? Do I live for myself or do I live for Christ, who gave his life that I may live? Are we compelled by the love of God for us to respond with love?

God never forces his love upon us. He loves us and waits for our response. We can receive as little or as much of his love as we are open to him.