Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sacrament of Confirmation

June 23, 2024
Saint Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Church
Roanoke, Texas

Job 38:1, 8-11
Psalm 107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31
2nd Corinthians 5:14-17
Mark 4:35-41

Our first reading from the Book of Job presents a dialogue between Job and the Lord God in which the Lord conveys to Job that He, the Lord God, has power over the elements of the sea. The sea carries with it the symbolism of chaos and disorder that randomly disturb human beings. The Lord conveys to Job that He, the Lord, says to the chaos of the sea, “Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled.” In our Gospel, Jesus manifests His Divinity to His disciples by exercising such power over the sea. Yet, Jesus reveals more concerning the nature of the Father’s sovereignty over creation, a sovereignty that belongs also to Jesus as the Son of God.

Jesus’ invitation to cross to the other side of the sea results in more than just a geographical change from one place to another. The fishermen in the group of disciples were probably a little wary since the sky was dark, clouds were beginning to gather, and it was getting windy. Signs forecast bad weather and their experience cautions them not to venture out on the sea. But Jesus manifests calm and encourages confidence in them, so they embarked.

Even when the storm broke, as they had expected, they did not initially become alarmed since they saw Jesus peacefully asleep in the stern with His head on a cushion. But when the waves began to get violent, and the water began to splash in and fill the boat, fear overcame them. They woke Jesus up, shouting over the roar of wind and waves: “Master, don’t you care that we are going to drown?”

Jesus woke up pushing Himself from the cushion and felt the force of the storm. Standing up, He commanded the wind and sea: “Quiet, be still!” And all became quiet and still. Then He said to His disciples: “Why are you so fearful?Where is your faith?” As they watched what happened, their sense of fear became one of awe or reverence, an emotion that differs from fear only in the character of its object. In calming the storm, Jesus reveals Himself to the disciples as God because they were familiar with the story in our first reading from Job—that only God can control the storms. When we are confronted with something perceived as overwhelmingly threatening, we are fearful; when we are confronted with something powerfully good, we are in awe.

Pope Francis offers us some insight into this scene from today’s Gospel. The Pope says, “Jesus asks the disciples a question, a question which also pertains to us: ‘Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?’ The disciples were gripped with fear, because they were focused on the waves more than on looking at Jesus. And fear leads us to look at the difficulties, the awful problems, and not to look at the Lord, who many times is sleeping. It is this way for us too: how often we remain fixated on problems rather than going to the Lord and casting our concerns on him! How often do we leave the Lord in a corner, at the bottom of the boat of life, to wake Him only in a moment of need!”

Saint Mark ends this scene of his gospel with Jesus’ question to his disciples, but we must imagine that Jesus went back to his cushion to sleep and that the disciples had to row the rest of the way to the other side since the wind had died down. No doubt they were a little stunned and in awe over what had happened on the sea. Their understanding of the world had changed by what Christ had revealed, and they began to see things against the new horizon of eternal life and began to understand that Jesus was teaching them how to do their own part in His mission.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit that you receive today enable you to see the world and your lives with the perspective of Christ against this new horizon of eternal life — that you are destined for this ultimate glory and no storm can prevent you from arriving there. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit conform you to Christ who is fully human and who calmed the storms of this life and who shares His interior peace with His Apostles and with you.

In the second reading, Saint Paul tells us what happened to the Apostles, and what has happened to us because of our Baptism in Christ, and what will happen in a particular way to you as you are confirmed with the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are changed because of the love of Christ in revealing to us the face of the Father through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but Saint Paul leaves out the cost of being made new. The cost is that we must do our part and weather some storms through the Holy Spirit’s Grace of Faith, Hope, and Love and His gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. With your confirmation, “the old order has passed away, now all is new. Anyone in Christ is a new creation.”