Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?
The author of Hebrews encourages those who had to flee from Jerusalem for the sake of following Jesus. Yes, their trials are hard to bear, but God loves them. He is a Father who corrects and tests his children out of love, that their faith may become more mature through the sufferings and difficulties that are part of life and of our being Christian. Do we too, accept this?
A man or woman like us from down the street, whose parents we know, how dare he or she speak God’s word to us – if it is God’s word! Jesus, the town carpenter whom everyone knew, how could he work miracles and where did he get this strange message? The Church with all its faults and the priest who is not any better than we are, how dare they speak to us in the name of God? God speaks through ordinary people. God’s word and message are stronger than the weak messengers he sends to speak his prophetic word. The people of Nazareth did not accept Jesus. Do we accept those who speak out for what is right and good?
Reading I Heb 12:4-7, 11-15
In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?
My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,
but don’t be crushed by it either.
It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
the child he embraces, he also corrects.
God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off big-time, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. So don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it! Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you’ll never get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure no one gets left out of God’s generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time. Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God’s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God’s blessing—but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.
Gospel Mk 6:1-6
He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He stole the show, impressing everyone. “We had no idea he was this good!” they said. “How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?” But in the next breath they were cutting him down: “He’s just a carpenter—Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?” They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling. And they never got any further. Jesus told them, “A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child.” Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.
Prayer
God, our Father without equal,
your Son, your living Word, came among us
as one of our own, our own flesh and blood.
Dispose us to welcome him always
and to listen to what he tells us,
also when his word upsets and disturbs us.
And give us too, the courage
to pass on his word to one another,
that it may liberate us all
and lead us to you as your one people.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
Reflection:
1 February 2023
Mark 6:1-6
Too familiar to appreciate
After spending a few months in Capernaum, visiting the villages of Galilee, preaching the gospel and healing the sick, Jesus returns to his native village. Jesus in Capernaum was involved in tragic conflicts with the political and religious authorities. But, now in his own native, it is the ordinary peasants of his country who do not understand and reject him. Jesusmust have said or done something particularly provocative!
Sometime before, his relatives tried to convince him to return to his family and to resume his decent work as a carpenter, but he did not accede to their proposal. Looking on those around him to listen to him, he exclaimed: “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me” (Mk 3:31-35).
Now, on his own initiative, he returns to Nazareth, accompanied by his new family – thegroup of disciples, who responded to his call. They had left their boats, nets and father and all they had and followed him.
As long as Jesus remains quiet in the house where he grew up, that is, as long as he remains within the traditional mould, and appreciates the religious beliefs transmitted by the rabbis and shared by all, no one has anything to say about him. Problems arise as soon as he makes public the decision to set up a new home, a new family.
With his message and actions, Jesus is demolishing the old house in which they have placed all their hopes. What guarantees can “the carpenter, the son of Mary” offer? For more than thirty years, has done nothing but fix doors and windows, make hoes and ploughs, and they knew his brothers and sisters. Where does the message that he expounds come from? Who gives him the power to work wonders? They wonder: are they done in the name of God, or, as the scribes that came from Jerusalem accused him of (Mk 3:22), or do they come from the evil one?
The attitude taken by the people of Nazareth is repeated even today. Today there is no lack of prophets, but we refuse to accept them as such. Simply because we know them. We use the same argument that Jesus’ countrymen used. And we close ourselves off to the new possibilities, ways and hopes that God opens up to us through them. Certainly, they have their weaknesses as we all do, but through them the Spirit speaks. If we don’t listen to them, too bad for us!
Who are the prophets for you today? To what extent do we listen to them? Do you feel that, if listened to them, we could live differently?