14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); July 7, 2024

Ez 2:2-5.  Ps 123.  2 Cor 12:7-10.  Mk 6:1-6a

Deacon Jim McFadden

            One of Mark Twain’s memorable lines was “Familiarity breeds contempt…and children.”  While we know a lot about the process by which familiarity produces children, we’re a lot less informed how it produces contempt. All of this is on full display in today’s Gospel from Mark.

            Jesus had returned home to Nazareth, where he had grown up with Mary and Joseph and one sabbath, he is teaching in the synagogue.  It didn’t go well. Those who were so familiar with Jesus wondered, “Where does he  get all this wisdom?  But, isn’t he the son of the carpenter and Mary” and his relatives that we know so well? (cf. Mk 6:1-3).  Confronted with this reaction Jesus comes back with a rejoinder that has become part of popular wisdom: “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own  kin and in his own house” (v. 4).  Ouch!

            Regarding the attitude of Jesus’ fellow villagers, what we have is that they knew about Jesus but they did not recognize him for who he is.  They had a lot of information about Jesus: his family, his work, his origin—he was a local guy; so, they put Jesus into his place because they convinced themselves that they knew him very well.  He was one of them—an ordinary human being who should be going about doing ordinary things: like being a carpenter.  He should be making tables , not speaking wisdom, curing the sick, and casting out demons.  In their minds, being acquainted with the ordinariness of Jesus prevented them from recognizing who He truly is. Therefore, they couldn’t explain, nor stomach his wisdom and power.  They remained at the exterior level and rejected what was radically new about Jesus.

            And, this is where we enter into the crux of the problem: when we allow the convenience of habit within our cultural mindset and the dictatorship of prejudice to have the upper hand, that not only distorts our relationship with our neighbor but with God himself.  It’s just not possible to relate to people prejudicially and at the same time be in authentic relationship with God.  Today, our country is as polarized as it has been since the Civil War.  We gravitate towards our cultural/political/economic tribes in which we are fed data that confirms our attitudes and prejudices.  What often happens is that we seek from our experiences and even how we relate to others  only what conforms to our own ideas and ways of thinking so as never to make an effort to change.  Our consciousness becomes hardened; consequently,   how we relate to each other, inevitably determines how we relate to God. 

            Just like the villagers, we think we know Jesus, that we know a lot about him through our religious instruction, that we know so much about the Gospel stories, that it’s enough to repeat the same stories,  the same doctrines and think that we’re in right relationship with God.

            Well, that’s not enough!  Without an openness to the Risen Christ, without an openness to what is truly new in the Gospel, without really listening to his Word, without being open to God’s surprises, our faith will become tired, predictable and will slowly die as our faith comes a social habit.

            What the villagers lacked was amazement, which is exactly what happens when we encounter Jesus.  If you can say, “I have encountered the Lord,” then you are being transformed from within, which will liberate you from your comfortable silo and distorted view of reality with its implied bias.  Instead, like the Beloved Disciple, you will begin to see reality through the Eye and Sacred Heart of Jesus.  In the Gospel we read many times that people who encountered Jesus and recognized Him felt amazement.  And, we, by encountering Jesus in our ordinary experience should also feel amazement.  That’s like a certificate that  our encounter  is true and that’s not habitual.

            In the final analysis, why did the villagers not recognize Jesus and believe in Him.  Simply put: they do not accept the Incarnation.  They couldn’t accept this mystery that the immensity of God Who intentionally holds all of the universe in his hands should be revealed in the smallness of our flesh; that the Son of God should be the son of a carpenter; that the divine should be hidden in the human; that God should assume a human face and embrace the words, the lifestyle of a simple man.   That is the scandal: the Incarnation of God, his concreteness, his everyday life right here, right now. 

            Jesus is Immanuel: God among is.  And, the villagers, when he passed by, they did not recognize him.  This was St. Augustine’s concern who said, “I am afraid of God, of the Lord, when he passes by.” But when asked why he would be afraid, he said: “I am afraid I will not recognize him.  I am afraid  the Lord, when he passes by: Timeo Dominum transeutem.”  People of God,  let this not happen to us.  Let us recognize Jesus for Who He is, which will impact how we relate to our brothers and sisters.  Let us not be scandalized by Jesus.

            Let us ask our Blessed Lady, who welcomed the mystery of God into her daily life in Nazareth, that we may have the eyes and hearts free of prejudice and have eyes open to amazement.  Amen.

Reflection Questions

1. Are you influenced to gravitate towards cultural silos, which lends to prejudicial perception?
2. How do you distinguish authentic spirituality from religious habit.
3. Are you often amazed when you encounter Jesus in our ordinary life?