Catholic Contemplative Affiliation

Sunday Readings

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 19, 2021 Readings: Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2^nd Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41 Meditation: Our immediate observation of the events in the world is that a basic disorder prevails as history unfolds. When we withdraw into the interior of our consciousness there is a similar chaos as we witness our uncontrollable thoughts, images and commentaries running amok and freely. We can easily feel helpless and confused, powerless in the face of these errant and chaotic forces. Job exemplifies well the experience of the man of God who sees himself in this helpless and hopeless condition. So, like Job we can lament, if not for the complete loss he experienced, then for the various trials and obstacles we face, around and within us. The First Reading from the Book of Job, gives us life amid the ashes, gives us faith that is life, if we can listen to the voice of God proclaiming sovereignty over the tumult: *The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said….* The First Reading proclaims that God himself is “The I Who Am.” If the Book of Job capitulates the saga of the Man of God in the midst of turmoil and abandoning self into God’s mercy and omnipotence, then the Gospel Reading proclaims the reality of the Mystery now living simply among us: the Divine Power is still here manifesting Itself in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, Risen Lord of the universe: *He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea: “Be Quiet! Be Still!”* Nature obeyed him; the chaotic turmoil obeyed him, the Risen Lord who when first among the disciples in his glory said: “Peace be with you.” As in Job, God is now historically present in the Mystery of Christ Jesus with us, now and to the end of the ages. As prefigured in the Book of Job, God is now definitively, incarnationally present in the world in the words and works of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostles express the wonderment born of faith that remains in the Church: *“Who can this be that the wind and the sea obey him?”* Our prayer is nothing more than remaining in this wonderment in this assuredness that at the center of the world’s process of history is the Mystery of God’s victory, even and especially in the midst of the apparent chaos of death, injustice and violence, the raging story of history and our individual personal story. The Presence that saves us appears to be asleep— *Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion….They awoke him…* --while all else rages and wrecks havoc. But the Presence of the Mystery at the center is omnipotence, wisdom, and eternal life, begun here and now. Once having accepted in faith the Mystery of Christ we live in a new universe. The Second Reading tells us: *The old order has passed away; now all is new!* Love is at the center of creation and its evolving history. *The love of Christ impels us….* Christ’s death is in the death of everyman but Christ’s resurrection is the divine power at the center of the unfolding universe, waiting its embrace in faith and hope by a searching humanity: *This means that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.* Vivid, life-changing consciousness of this sharing in the new creation is the fruit of our life of faithful prayer. We believe and have come to know that in Christ by grace we bear the new creation already begun in us as we follow the path and gradually progress in the process of transformation into Christ. Sundays are Eucharist par excellence: Sunday is rest, abiding in the Presence that is our celebration, our sacrifice, our communion, in the living, victorious Christ, seen as the Sacred Elements of bread and wine. The Body, The Blood, the Soul and Divinity of the Lord. --William C. Fredrickson, (Oblate, OSB; D.Min.)
For questions, comments or other communication, please contact: William Frederickson Fredrickson46@msn.com

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 19, 2021

Readings: Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2^nd Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41

Meditation:
Our immediate observation of the events in the world is that a basic disorder prevails as history unfolds.

When we withdraw into the interior of our consciousness there is a similar chaos as we witness our uncontrollable thoughts, images and commentaries running amok and freely.

We can easily feel helpless and confused, powerless in the face of these errant and chaotic forces.

Job exemplifies well the experience of the man of God who sees himself in this helpless and hopeless condition.
So, like Job we can lament, if not for the complete loss he experienced, then for the various trials and obstacles we face, around and within us.

The First Reading from the Book of Job, gives us life amid the ashes, gives us faith that is life, if we can listen to the voice of God proclaiming sovereignty over the tumult:
The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said….

The First Reading proclaims that God himself is “The I Who Am.”
If the Book of Job capitulates the saga of the Man of God in the midst of turmoil and abandoning self into God’s mercy and omnipotence, then the Gospel Reading proclaims the reality of the Mystery now living simply among us: the Divine Power is still here manifesting Itself in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, Risen Lord of the universe:
He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea: “Be Quiet! Be Still!”

Nature obeyed him; the chaotic turmoil obeyed him, the Risen Lord who when first among the disciples in his glory said: “Peace be with you.” As in Job, God is now historically present in the Mystery of Christ Jesus with us, now and to the end of the ages. As prefigured in the Book of Job, God is now definitively, incarnationally present in the world in the words and works of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The apostles express the wonderment born of faith that remains in the Church:
“Who can this be that the wind and the sea obey him?”

Our prayer is nothing more than remaining in this wonderment in this assuredness that at the center of the world’s process of history is the Mystery of God’s victory, even and especially in the midst of the apparent chaos of death, injustice and violence, the raging story of history and our individual personal story.
The Presence that saves us appears to be asleep—
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion….They awoke him… --while all else rages and wrecks havoc. But the Presence of the Mystery at the center is omnipotence, wisdom, and eternal life, begun here and now.

Once having accepted in faith the Mystery of Christ we live in a new universe. The Second Reading tells us:
The old order has passed away; now all is new!
Love is at the center of creation and its evolving history.
The love of Christ impels us….

Christ’s death is in the death of everyman but Christ’s resurrection is the divine power at the center of the unfolding universe, waiting its embrace in faith and hope by a searching humanity:
This means that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Vivid, life-changing consciousness of this sharing in the new creation is the fruit of our life of faithful prayer. We believe and have come to know that in Christ by grace we bear the new creation already begun in us as we follow the path and gradually progress in the process of transformation into Christ.

Sundays are Eucharist par excellence: Sunday is rest, abiding in the Presence that is our celebration, our sacrifice, our communion, in the living, victorious Christ, seen as the Sacred Elements of bread and wine. The Body, The Blood, the Soul and Divinity of the Lord.

--William C. Fredrickson, (Oblate, OSB; D.Min.)