First Reading
Job 38:1, 8-11
1. “The Lord addressed Job in a storm.” If God addresses you in the stormy times of your life, do you progress, regress, or just hang on for dear life?
2. Who is in charge in this reading? Explain. Even though it doesn’t seem so, do you think God will limit your “storms”?
Second Reading
2 Corinthians 5:14-17
1. How do people who “no longer live for themselves” qualify as “new creations”?
2. “The love of Christ impels us.” What does the love of Christ “impel” you to do? What actions do you perform because you love Christ that you might not otherwise perform? Relieve someone’s suffering in some way? Work for ecojustice? Do something to change the climate crisis?
Gospel
Mark 4:35-41
Because of the coronavirus, Pope Francis gave his extraordinary blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) in an empty St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 27, 2020. He said:
Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat … are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying “we are perishing” (v. 38), so we too have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this.
Pope Francis, Urbi et Orbi
address on Jesus calming the storm
1. We are all in the same boat. What are some things we can work on together to solve some of the world’s problems now? Pray? Feed the hungry? Recycle? Build “Tiny Homes” for the homeless? Care for the sick? Help stop trafficking? Work to prevent discrimination?
2. In the Luke 8:22-25 version of this story the disciples thought they were going down with the storm and they were afraid. Can you relate to that? Is Jesus with you, as he was with the disciples, when “violent squalls come up” in your life? Does this man who shares our human vulnerability also have the power of the Creator? What effect does that fact have on your “storm management”?
