WHAT TROUBLES YOU?

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Jb 38:1.8-11; Ps.107; 2 Cor 5:14-17; Mk 4: 35-41, Cycle B

What troubles you? For students, being called in class by their strict teacher chills them. For teenagers, sitting beside their “man/woman of their dreams” gives them discomfort. Kaya nga minsan nagiging tanga tayo kahit gaano pa man tayo ka talino nakita lang si crush. For parents, seeing the long list of payables from electricity, tuition, water, food, etc., makes them worry a lot. Probably for some who are here, standing in front of a mirror is like being tossed by strong waves in the ocean. What troubles you?

In our readings today, we find two contradictory scenes. In our first reading, we met the troubled Job who was visited by his friends who tried to explain to him his experience of losing his wealth and the source of his health, his family. However, we also heard God who spoke to him about his divine wisdom and power. “Who is this who darkens counsel with words of ignorance? ... Where were you when I founded the earth?... Thus far shall you come but no father, and here shall your proud waves stop?” In our Gospel, the disciples were troubled because there was a “violent squall and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.”  However, amidst the trouble, “Jesus was in the stern asleep on a cushion.” He was probably soundly asleep and never bothered because the disciples had to wake him up. “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

These two realities are also happening in our lives today. Early on, I asked you, “what troubles you?” And I believe that all of us are troubled in one way or another. We are troubled because of many reasons – financial, relational, emotional, psychological, and even spiritual. However, if we look at the big picture, we realize that there is also a peaceful God. Amidst the troubled world, we find the “Creator who does not abandon us; who never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us (Laudato Si no. 13).” Despite our troubled lives, God remains peaceful like “sleeping on a cushion amidst the violent squall.”

Thus we ask ourselves why do we continue to linger on troubled waters despite having a God who is at peace? Pope Francis in his latest encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si, has this to say, “when people become self-centered and self-enclosed, their greed increases.” True enough, when we focus on ourselves; we all the more realize that we need more. We ask for more! When we center our lives on ourselves; we want more money, more fame, more power, more attention, more and more! Naturally, it makes us troubled! We become insecure because others have more while we have less. In the end, we fail to recognize the presence of Jesus in our lives because we have focused so much on the waves of greed and selfishness.

In this 12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are challenged to unite ourselves to Christ for Paul in our second reading today has assured us that “whosoever in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” Like the disciples who called on the Lord in the midst of the violent squall, let us also call on the Lord through prayer. Let us ask him to quiet our troubled lives which have been tossed by the waves of greed, selfishness, and insecurity. In Baptism, our old lives have ended for grace has covered us. Let us also remember that every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we are once again reunited with Christ who turns the old into new things. After Jesus was awaken by his disciples, he commanded the sea and the wind to be quiet and be still. Our troubled lives right now can only become peaceful if we call on our Lord, if we unite ourselves always with Him.

What troubles you? I hope and pray that not the lack of money, fame, power, glory, and attention makes us troubled. Rather, I hope that every time we detach ourselves from Christ because of our sins is the real cause of trouble. When this happens, let us hasten to unite ourselves immediately to God, for our Responsorial Psalm today has assured us that “his love is everlasting.” Amen!

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