By Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB
In our first reading on this 12th Sunday, God had intervened on behalf of Job. The divine message told this greatly troubled man not to waver in his faith, that God truly cared for him. To encourage Job, God recalled the origin, the birth, of earth and seas, how He set firm the boundaries of the seas and sent the dark night to wrap His new creation in swaddling clothes. The reading is a subtle invitation to us when feeling miserable, to recall the great marvels that God has done to care for us and enable us to grasp anew our trust in Him.
Not merely are we helped to stir up our trust as part of our cure at stormy times in, but also God seeks our gratitude. By His power he can calm not only the storms in nature, but those that attack the tranquility of our lives. There are multiple signs of God’s creative power present in us, and our psalm today urges us to pause before the good Lord and to count our blessings! They are in us and all around us. As our psalm suggests, “Give thanks to the Lord, His love [for us] is everlasting.”
St. Paul, as he usually does, places the Lord Jesus today in the midst of our thinking and praying. He advises, “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, newt things have come.” For Paul that is so because we Christians have a new way of life revealed to us by Christ. Our life lies under the influence of that man who died and rose for us. Once we accept this truth, “The love of Christ impels us.” We live under a new way of life. This, Paul calls “a new creation.”
Therefore, we trust in Christ. He possesses the immense power of the creative Word of God made Flesh. The quirks of life should not subject us. That is what the Gospel says. It may seem to us that our boat is sinking, and we are lost. It may seem that the mighty Lord Jesus is asleep, allowing us to perish. Caught by the storm, His disciples pleaded, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” It could be our question too. And if we had the faith of the apostles in us, we too would hear Jesus still our troubled waters, “Quiet! Be still.” Give us too, Lord, that strength of faith and trust.
God is our refuge and strength , an ever-present help. (Psalm 46.)