Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa: XII Sunday Of Ordinary Time

Below you can find the Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for the XII Sunday of Ordinary Time B, Sunday 23 June 2024.

Mk. 4:35-41

Today's Gospel passage (Mk. 4:35-41) immediately follows last Sunday's, which recounted two parables of the Kingdom and ended with an image of a tree growing in the garden becoming so large that it can shelter the birds of heaven (Mk. 4:32).

It is an important imagery because in heaven there are no national boundaries, no barriers whatsoever: and the image of the tree is meant to say that the Kingdom of Heaven is open to all, near and far. It is not reserved only for one nation, one category of people, but for every man who wants to take refuge in its shadow.

Today's passage begins with an invitation from Jesus to go to the other side (Mk. 4:35): the other side indicates the pagan shore of Lake Tiberias, and thus, potentially, territory outside the promised land, outside the kingdom of God.

The evangelist points out that this occurs on the same day (Mark 4:35), in the evening. It is the same day Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God, greater than the land of Israel. A word that is certainly not easy to take in and understand: like the seed, so too this word needs time to bear fruit, and it also needs the dark of night, in which, under the ground, the seed dies.

The evangelist also specifies that the disciples take the Lord, "as he is" (Mark 4:36), into the boat: this is a very strange indication. What does it mean that they take Him as He is?

Perhaps it means just that: they take him as he is, without understanding him completely, without understanding his logic, his way of perceiving the Kingdom of God.

They therefore take him in the boat as he is.

But what is the Lord like? The Lord is greater than the disciples can comprehend, and the gift of his life is for everyone, even for those on the other shore.

This is the great crossing that the disciples must make.

What happens during the crossing is something that reveals exactly the distance between Jesus' way of thinking and that of the disciples.

While they are crossing to the other shore, a great storm erupts (Mk. 4:37); but the strange thing is that, amid the storm, Jesus sleeps (Mk. 4:38)

How can one sleep amid a storm when the boat is overrun with water?

Perhaps the key lies in another storm reported in the Bible: The Book of Jonah (Joh 1) speaks of a similar situation on the Sea of Galilee.

For Jonah is fleeing from God's command to go and proclaim mercy to the Ninevites; he boards to go far from the Lord, but a great storm rages on the sea (Joh 1:4). Also, here the boat is about to sink, and like Jesus, Jonah also sleeps (Joh 1:5). Not only that, but as the disciples do with the Lord, here too the fellow sailors do with Jonah: they go to wake him up.

They wake him up with a question: why are you sleeping? And then they add, " Get up, call on your god! Perhaps this god will be mindful of us so that we will not perish." (Joh 1:6). These are the same words of the disciples, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" (Mk. 4:39).

Finally, there is another common element: on the boat, along with Jonah, are pagan people, who believe in another god. Each prays to his god, but this is not enough to quell the storm (Joh 1:5)…

This Meditation was originally published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.