Ordinary Time

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

In the book of Wisdom we see the fruit of centuries of reflection on the meaning of the first chapters of Genesis. Wisdom insists that in God’s original plan humans were immortal; this is, at least in part, what it means to say that they were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). It was only because of the machinations of the snake, now identified as the devil, that humans experience death. But this is certainly not what God, who is resolutely opposed to death, wants for humans. The larger point of the Wisdom passage is to warn people to be faithful to God and thus not to “court death by your erring way of life” (1:12).

In his letter the Corinthians, Paul now turns to his collection for the Christians in Jerusalem. He challenges them—who “excel in every respect”—to excel in giving also. Here they should look to the example of Christ, from whose generosity they have been enriched. One way to show their gratitude is to share other forms of “riches” with the struggling church in Jerusalem. He seals this appeal with a reference to Exodus (16:18), which refers to the distribution of manna in the wilderness. The point is clear: any abundance the Corinthians enjoy is a gift from God, which is meant to be shared equally by all of God’s people.

In both stories of the longer form of the Lectionary reading, the role of faith—trust in Jesus’ will and ability to save—is central. The woman believes quite simply that if she touches Jesus’ clothes, that will be enough to cure her. Jairus approaches Jesus with absolute confidence that by laying his hands on his daughter, Jesus will save her from death. Most notable about both of them is the fact that neither hesitates or hedges. Neither says, “If you can,” or “If he will,” or gives any other expression that would serve to prepare prepare them to be disappointed if Jesus refuses or somehow fails to save.

Jan 27 2025

From Fear to Floundering to Faith

When I was a little girl, a picture in my children’s Bible depicted Jesus standing in the front of a boat with his arms sweeping high into the air. The sea has calmed. The disciples look relaxed and happy. All is good.

But I used to wonder, even as a little child—in the middle of the storm, how did Jesus get to the front of the boat? In the beginning, he slept in the stern. In the end, he stood majestically in the prow. How did he wrestle his way from the back to the front as the waves tossed the boat?

The picture suggests fear in the back, faith in the front . . . ? But wait! Right in the middle of this story, between fear and faith, is this moment of floundering.

Sometimes we want to skip that floundering part. Why? Maybe because once we are adults, we are not supposed to flounder? But we do flounder. We have moments of helplessness. In times of trouble, we may accuse God of “not caring.”

Jesus asks, “Do you not yet have faith?” Maybe that is an accurate observation. The disciples do not yet have faith. Yet Jesus helps them just as they are. He doesn’t ask them to believe based on nothing; he is willing to show them. He has changed water into wine. He has made a blind man see. He now calms the waves.

It is in their floundering that they find faith. They discover an inner certainty, a deep assurance, a faith in the One who keeps showing them someone to believe in.

Perhaps the picture in my storybook was wrong. Maybe Jesus lifted his head slightly, stilled the sea, and went back to sleep. Who knows? Either way, the disciples swelled with amazement and awe: “Who is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

Consider/Discuss

Much of life is lived between total fear and total faith, often in floundering with high winds and rough waves. The possibility of drowning is terrifying. The waves could pull us under. Why can’t we smoothly slip past the floundering of this story? How has the Lord calmed the seas for you, kept you from sinking into the deep?
We are not alone in floundering. Peter put his foot in his mouth more than once. Moses told God to go find somebody else. The prophet Jeremiah said, “Nah, I’m too young.” Even one of Thomas Merton’s most famous prayers begins by telling God that he (Merton) has no idea where he’s going. How have you experienced God taking you as you are and lifting you to something greater? How can we do that for others?

Living and Praying with the Word

Thank you for giving us fortitude when we have no courage left. Thank you for your helping hand that seems to come out of nowhere to lift us up. Thank you for your unexpected calm when the world swirls in chaos around us. Thank you for that invisible help that we name “grace.” Thank you for the assurance that we can make it through the storms because we are not alone in the boat.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

God’s creative power is often expressed in the Bible through the metaphor of God controlling chaotic waters. In Genesis 1, God controls by speaking, while in other places, God must defeat the waters, personified as hostile “sea monsters,” in battle (Psalms 74:12–17; 89:10–12). Here God refers to this creative power in response to the demand that he give an account of himself for Job’s suffering. This response includes the assertion that Job is not capable of comprehending the complexity of the world and how it works, because Job did not have a hand in it. It was God, not humans, who “shut within the doors the sea” and “set limits for it,” stilling its “proud waves.” Only God, in other words, is capable of controlling the chaotic waters.

Paul has just been speaking of the need for perseverance. It is precisely what we do with this life that will determine the nature of our encounter with Christ the Judge. But what really impels Paul is the love of Christ. This is true in both senses: the love shown by Christ in dying for all so that we can become a new creation, and our love for Christ in return, which should lead us to embrace the gift of this new creation. Christians no longer live for themselves, but for the one who transformed them. The gift, in other words, can only be received by loving the giver back and living into the larger purpose for which the gift was given in the first place.

The account of the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee draws clearly on Ordinary Time images of dangerous, threatening waters that represent personal or social chaos (note, for example, that a psalmist regularly cries out to be saved from drowning or from sinking into the deep, an expression of personal distress and danger). In the Old Testament, it is God alone who saves by controlling chaotic waters, and yet the same is true of Jesus here. The fact that Jesus was asleep during the storm reflects his own faith that the chaos will not prevail, and his questions to his disciples are intended to provoke the same faith in Jesus’ saving power.

Jan 27 2025

Grow—Now!

In the children’s book Frog and Toad Together, Toad admires Frog’s garden. Toad wants to grow flowers too, so Frog gives him some seeds. But, Frog warns him, gardening is hard work. So Toad runs off and puts his seeds in the ground. Then he jumps up and down and shouts for the seeds to begin growing immediately!

As I read that story aloud to my grandson, I chuckled at Toad’s unholy impatience to get his seeds to grow. But then I went outside and saw my bed of carrots. I also wanted to yell at the seeds to start growing immediately. To germinate in our sandy soil, I have to keep them evenly moist for three weeks. Three weeks is a long time to look at bare dirt. I want to shout with Toad, “Come on, already!” Gardening is hard work.

Seed science is extraordinary. Germination is a tenuous process: not all seeds germinate, some rot, some never come up. Under ideal conditions, the seed coat swells with moisture and begins to transform. Two leaves erupt (in a dicotyledon), looking nothing like the hard seed. The tiny plant relies on the food stored within the seed. The dampness of fungus can wilt it. Dryness can kill it. When the second set of leaves erupts, that is a sign that the plant has developed its own root system. It will grow.

Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like the seeds that grow of their own accord. We do not know how the kingdom of God grows. Some days we might want to jump up and down and bellow, “Hey God, get working now!”

We are not in charge of transformation. But we can water. We can tend. In the grace of the Holy Spirit, we work hard while allowing Divine Mystery to be mystery, God to be God.

Consider/Discuss

It is hard to wait. Sometimes we want to jump up and down and shout, “Hey God, get going!” We want to be in control. We want to make things happen already. How do excess worry, unproductive fretting, and unholy impatience reflect our lack of trust? On the other hand, how does a healthy dose of concern keep us watering and tending? Where is the fine line between the two?
Just because the kingdom of God is a mystery does not suggest that we be lazy, settle for mediocrity, or excuse ourselves, in our efforts to further the Kingdom. Soil conditions are up to us. If we offer too heavy a clay, too shady a spot, and give too much or too little water, seeds can die. We are partners with God in the growth of the Kingdom. What tending does God want me to do today?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, your friend St. Paul tells us that we feel far from you while we are in this human body. We have to walk by faith because we do not see you. And yet you are also here. You are a constant gardener, present among us, planting and reaping in ways that we do not see or know. Even as we jump up and down in fret and worry, grant us the grace of inner calm that all will be well. We are willing to work to make your kingdom come. But only you can make it happen. Help us to trust in your timing.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

Just before today’s reading, Ezekiel speaks a prophecy about the divinely ordained exile of the Davidic king to Babylon, in which a great eagle plucks the crest of a cedar and transplants it (17:1– 4). But now the new Davidic king has appealed to Egypt for help against Babylon, attempting in effect to circumvent the divine plan of judgment against Judah. Now God affirms that divine power alone “will take from the crest of the cedar” and plant it. In other words, not the Davidic kings but God will rebuild the dynasty, and only after the time of judgment ends. It is God, not the kings, who raises up and brings down, who withers and who restores life. The oracle both affirms God’s plans for restoration and warns that only God will carry it out.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul is pondering the fact that discipleship brings with it many trials, yet these same hardships “produce for us an eternal weight of glory” (4:17). While we are in our earthly bodies, we can only groan in anticipation of this glory (5:1–5). This is why we must be courageous; although we are now “away from the Lord,” this is only temporary, a truth that can only be discerned in faith. This distance from the Lord must not lead us to falter in our discipleship, because in time we will appear before Christ, who will judge us precisely on what we have done during our time “in the body.”

Jesus gives two parables to explain the mysterious nature of the kingdom of God, both drawn from the natural world and focusing on the hidden process by which plants grow, which human beings cannot control. There is something inherent within the grain and the mustard plant that allows them to grow, in their own time and manner, independent of human will or power. At the same time, humans are involved in the process by sowing the seeds in the first place. The parables suggest that while the kingdom is indeed God’s, and cannot be manipulated by humans, human action is nevertheless part of the dynamic of the growth of the Kingdom.