12TH Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) 2021

Once again …. Happy Father’s Day dads! I remember the fun days of getting our father “ties” or “BBQ equipment”, cutting the lawn for him, and making his favorite dinner meal!!! Those were special days. I hope you all enjoy TODAY!!

INTRO: I was on a cruise ship once!

It was fantastic. Everyone had to report “on deck” before the ship sailed to learn about….
“In the event of a storm”!

Fortunately, we did not have one as we were headed into the infamous BERMUDA TRIANGLE! We were told how to wear the life vests and where the lifeboats were … just in case.

The cruise director and the captain of the ship did not want us to perish.
By the way, the CHURCH does not want any of us to perish as well.

Some of us live in precarious and stormy times, too. AND … Some of us may feel we are perishing living with life’s troubles.

“Why do I have to live with this disease?”
“Why is my family so broken?”
“Why is this happening to me?”

Have any of you ever been there? It is only natural to question and think this way about our troubles in life and feel overwhelmed.

That is what the disciples did …. They were frightened by life’s situation of the squall on the sea of Galilee. What we all humbly need is PERSISTANCE to not give up when the troubles come!

There is a story about a farmer’s old and blind donkey who fell into a well. The farmer hearing the cries of the poor donkey looked down the deep well wondered how he will ever get the donkey out of there. After much thought and as the well was dry to begin with, he made the sad decision to simply close the well.

He called his neighbors and explained we need to fill up this well with dirt and sadly bury his donkey. One shovel after another fell into the well.

As the dirt landed on the back of the donkey, the donkey simply shrugged it off and began to take one step up onto the dirt going higher and higher until he reached the top.

Everyone was amazed!

You see LIFE IS GOOD, but LIFE will “shovel all kinds of “dirt” on us and we simply have to:

SHAKE IT OFF and TAKE A STEP UP!

Each of our troubles is a steppingstone and we can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, by not giving up.

CONCLUSION

Three times the Lord GOT UP on His way to Calvary. So: HANG IN THERE with your storms of life and know that GOD is with us!