Gospel Reflection for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.
By The Benedictine Community
Give thanks to the Lord,
his love is everlasting. (Psalm 106)
Mark gives us this endearing detail that the other evangelists do not: that Jesus was sleeping in the stern of the boat: 'with his head on a cushion.' Needless to say, only extreme exhaustion could put a person to sleep through a gale at sea, with or without a cushion! Then when the gale blew, tossing the small boat about like a toy and waves crashed into it Jesus remained asleep and the disciples panicked. Thus in this, as in any test of faith his disciples, like ourselves, fail miserably. 'Master, do you not care? We are going down!'
One solution is to practice small acts of faith, love and especially gratitude during good times.
If we can see the presence of the Lord in our lives in times of blessing we can cling to Jesus in faith, hope and love when the storms and gales of life crash about us. The words of the hymn put it nicely.
Be still my soul, the tempests still obey His voice who ruled them once on Galilee.