Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), June 21, 2015 – Job 38, 1. 8-11; 2 Cor 5, 14-17; Mk 4, 35-41
Whoever is in Christ is a new creation (2 Cor 5, 17)
Those who are truly new in Christ do not lose sleep even over life’s most violent storms. They put their trust in God.
Our needs and our wants make us worry. Those with meager means are terribly concerned about their basic needs. The wealthy, on the other hand, get anxious about how to accumulate and store more goods, so that they hardly get to fulfill their objective of resting, eating, drinking and being merry.
Jesus does not want us to worry so. What he wishes for us is a new life, different from that of the pagans who are so concerned about things they need to live. He gives us notice besides that one radical trait that should characterize us is the readiness to renounce security—in the form of occupation, profession, family, possessions—to work with him in advancing the Kingdom of God.
This Kingdom ought to be at the center of our concerns. And the Teacher guarantees that everything else will be given besides to those who seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness.
Nothing, then, should overly preoccupy those who believe in Jesus and his words, convinced that they will conquer overwhelmingly through him. They are infected by both his indefatigable zeal for the kingdom and his trust in Providence. Hence, like St. Paul, they do not get overwhelmed by any strait.
Nor does it matter to them that they are accused, as was Jesus, of blaspheming, of being gluttons and drunkards, friends of tax collectors and sinners, of not fasting or following doctrines and observing precepts, of being out of their minds and being insincere, of colluding with Beelzebub. What is important to them is to make sure, as St. Vincent de Paul advises, that they worry more about enlarging Jesus Christ’s empire than adding to their possessions, certain that, if they look after his affairs, he will see to theirs (SV.FR III:531-532).
In other words, true disciples are focused on seeing to it that it is seen and heard that the Kingdom of God is here. They do so by attending to the poor, announcing to them the Good News, loving as they are loved by the one who nourishes them with his body and blood.
And at the end of a day of hard work for the Gospel, they lie down in peace and fall asleep at once on the cushion of their conviction that the Lord alone gives them safety and makes grow what Paul has planted and Apollos has watered.
Lord of nature and history, grant that we work confidently with you in the building up of a more human and wholesome world.
Ross Reyes Dizon
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