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Readings for Sunday June 21
st 
. 2009 12
th
Sunday inOrdinary time
 Don’t you care?
If I were a teen right now, reading this week’s Gospel I wonder what I would bethinking, maybe here we go again just call on Jesus and everything will be fine, wellmany teens are not “feeling it” Jesus! They feel alone and nobody cares. As a parent, I can’t tell you how many times I have told my sons “these are thebest years of your Life.” They would look at me with that blank expression probably thinking “I’d like to get my hands on the guy that came up with that expression or “I bet that guy was never a teen. I can remember my dad saying those same words to me and how I would say “this could not be true.” Yes, I had more fun than a teen could imaginebut I also had my share of “Storms.” I remember meeting new friends at school and thinking that they would be my lifelong pals, only to find out that this was not to be and a friend today does not mean a friend tomorrow, this could bring much loneliness and sadness to a teen. As a teen, I felt popular in my middle school years, but didn’t feel the sameacceptance when I got to high school, I struggled to fit in and to find anyone who would accept me the way I was, to have just one BFF. As I read this week’s Gospel and thought about its meaning, how the Apostles must have felt to be left all alone, thinking that their friend (Jesus) had forgotten them. “How could He do this to us, we are such good friends?” They felt doomed and thought that the end was near.I couldn’t help but think of my life and the times I was about to give up saying “Noone really cares.” But they did care, not the ones I was looking to for help but the onesthat were in my “stormy” boat with me, those who gave me a hand when I stopped longenough to listen to what they were trying to do for me.This was the beginning of the “storms” in my life and I had no way of knowing at that time that I was OK and that we were all struggling, and that it was not just about mebut every teen I ever met also had their own “storms” to deal with.
 
 Jesus wants us to be “Quiet! Be still” and listen to the voice in the “storm”, thevoice may be that of our parents, a family member, a teacher, a good friend. This is what  Jesus does, He sends the right people into our lives, but first, instead of saying to Jesus“Don’t you care” we should put aside our fear and reach out of our “Storm” and say yes Jesus I know you are there, please help me. But it won’t end there; someday Jesus willcall on you and send you to be a friend to someone in the middle of their “storm.” IHN, tommy Reading 1 Job 38:1, 8-111.The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said:8.Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb;9.when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands?10.When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of itsdoor,11. And said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!Questions for Discussion:1. Think of a time in your life when you have gotten the wrong answer because youasked the wrong question, what happened?2. Does God reveal himself here as a distant, authoritative and impersonal God under whom Job should cower, or as a personal God who is willing to reveal himself?3. What is God trying to teach Job about His divine nature?4. What kind of questions do you ask God when you don’t understand circumstances in your life? What do you pray for?5. Does God always give you solutions to your problems or answers to your questions?What else might God want to be revealing to you?6. Any reasons why certain things happen to you? Or is it enough to know God is Good and God is Great?Reading II2 Corinthians 5:14-1714.Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to theconviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died.15.He indeed died for all, sothat those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sakedied and was raised.
 
16.Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we onceknew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.17.So whoever isin Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things havecome.
 
Questions for Discussion:1. What does Paul mean by what he says about Christ and our response to him (vv 15-17, see also Romans 6, 5-13)2. How does this make you feel about your past life? Your life now?3. What does “Reconciliation” mean to you? What story from your life illustrates this?4. What motivates you to share your faith? What inhibits you?5. At what stage is your relationship with God? A family feud, a truce or have you madeup?GospelMark 4:35-4135.On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: "Let us cross to the other side."36.Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him.37. A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.38. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.They woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"39.He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!" The wind ceased and there was great calm.40.Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?"41.They were filled with great awe and said to one another,“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"Questions for Discussion:1.When have you been stranded by a storm or natural disaster?2.Who in your family is good at keeping calm in the storms of life? How do they doit?
3.
If you had been one of the Apostles when the boat was about to sink, what would  you have done?a. jumped overboard b. screamed for help c. started bailing water d.taken command e. acted like nothing was wrong f. woke Jesus up4. What brings on most of the “storms” in your life?
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