Where Did He Get That Power?

(Homily 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)

     One of the painstaking questions of the New Testament does not only revolve around the origin and person of Jesus Christ, but also around the source of His power and the mighty works that he accomplishes. And many a time, man’s incapacity to unravel the mystery behind this question has plunged him into hostility and incredulity towards his person, his works and teachings. Often, it is has been asked, “Who is he?  “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him” (Mt.8:27). “Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him” (Mk.4:41). “Who can this be? That gives orders to winds and waves and they obey” (Lk. 8:25). But of all, the book of exodus captured the response and the personality and work of Jesus, with rather an affirmative question thus: “who is like the Lord” (Ex. 15:11). It is a question that presupposes admiration and acceptance, a question devoid of hostility and incredulity. However, in today’s gospel specifically, the question shifted from who is he? (to) where does his power come from? (Mk.6:2). They failed to understand that “in Him dwells the fullness of divinity” (Col.2:9), and yet he is the perfect man! And his kinsmen confronted with his power, listening to the marvels of his words, enjoying his teachings, seeing him there inside there synagogue, full of majesty, full of dignity, full of divinity, full of humanity and full of Spirit, they did not accept Him, in their unbelieving minds, it could not be him. He was really too much for them!

     The first reading (Ez. 2:2-5) presents the theme of rejection and incredulity in the prophetic experience of Ezekiel. As a matter of fact, the choice of this reading must have been influenced by the gospel which presents Jesus as a prophet rejected by his own kinsmen. In a similar vein, Ezekiel was sent to his own people and was warned of the possibility of being rejected by them. In this passage, while entrusting Ezekiel the prophetic mission among the Israelites exiled in Babylon, God didn’t promise him success and prestige, rather he said to him “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to the rebels who have rebelled against me…because they are stubborn and obstinate children” (Ez. 2:3-4). (As an oversight, in this passage the title “son of man” simply means man, it is not a messianic title. It denotes a man, human bearer of the divine message). From the historical-spiritual standpoint, we can say that the history of Israel is a history of incredulity and infidelity before God. Incredulity before God and the prophets, “They and their ancestors have been in revolt against me up to the present day” (v.3). The major problem is that, the people of Israel failed to enter into the project of God. They found it difficult to remain faithful to Him, because their immediate interest is in contrast with God’s project, theirs was an experience of rise and fall. However, in the midst of this human infidelity, incredulity and obstinacy, the word of God re-assured us that God realizes his plan of salvation: “whether they listen or not, this tribe of rebels will know there is a prophet among them” (v.5). In all, God continues to send his messengers to the chosen people as a sign of his merciful love, for he is a faithful God, and what He says He will do, He does!

     Similarly, in the gospel of Mark (Mk. 6:1-6), the theme of incredulity is quite predominant. Jesus is now with a great fame as a miracle worker and a crowd puller. After his prodigious work in many towns and villages, Jesus turns to his people in Nazareth, but he was not favorably welcomed. In fact, in the Lukan account he was completely unsuccessful there, and almost lost his life (Lk. 4:28-29). John in the prologue affirmed “He came to his own, but they didn’t accept him” (Jn.1:11). Jesus himself, upon consideration of this hostility in his own town, voiced out thus: “a prophet is despised only in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house” (Mk.6:4). Therein, it is not the incredulity of the Scribes and the Pharisees, the eloquent adversaries of Jesus, but that of his kinsmen. In fact, the evangelist noted that as a result of their hostility and incredulity, “he could do no mighty works there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them” (v.5). And Jesus “marveled because of their unbelief” (v.6). They admired his teaching and power, yet they were unable to recognize who He really is, for in their eyes he was ‘too simple’ to be the Messiah. For us today, we are called not to remain admirers of Jesus and his gracious teachings. The fact remains that to believe in Jesus also entails the capacity to overcome the ‘scandal’ of his being God and man.

     As emanating from the passage of the gospel of Mark, it is comprehensible that the Jews were expecting the Messiah, but they were waiting for Him in their own way, in a way different from the design of God the Father. And within the framework of today’s reflection, we can’t but read again and appropriate the words of Prophet Isaiah: “for my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, declares Yahweh. For as the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts” (Is. 55:8-9). They had an idea of salvation very much different from God’s plan and project on humanity. In their conception, the Messiah has to be a mysterious personage, from an unknown origin, extraordinary, powerful, victorious over his enemies and a restorer of Israel, even from political standpoint. But in the person of Jesus, the people of Nazareth, his people saw none of the above qualities in him. Instead, they saw him as a normal/common person, who they know very much of his background. But this unfortunately is a one-sided knowledge. They claim to know him very well, to be a son of the carpenter, the son of Mary. But they failed to recognize that he was like them but at the same time he supersedes them, not to talk of accepting and considering him as the Messiah and the Son of God.

     Be that as it may, they found it difficult to believe that he is the One sent by God, the promised Messiah. As such, they marveled over the wisdom and the profundity of the words with which he explained the Scriptures in the Synagogue, and for his fame as a healer and miracle worker and thus they questioned: “where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him?” (v.2). But unfortunately, they couldn’t go beyond this. The striking point is the fact that God has chosen a different way to realize his project of salvation of the world. He desired that His Son, will become man, will be borne by a woman, live, suffer and die like every other man. God therefore chose the way of weakness and fragility, and not that of power; he chose the way of poverty and not that of richness; he chose the way of humiliation and death on the cross and not that of success and glory. This indeed is the parlance and logic of God, that some of the Jews and even men and women of our time have failed to understand and welcome. In that bid, therefore, St. Mark intends to tell us that Jesus was not merely a successful miracle worker tout court. Even his miraculous works and prodigies led to his rejection and death.

    What a contrasting story, the countrymen of Jesus failed to recognize Him as the Messiah, basically because of our humanity that he assumed (in order to save mankind), just because he looked like and was one of them, they claim to know him all! Ridiculous indeed that the very instrument for the salvation of mankind became for the same man, the reason for the repudiation of the Savior. Even today it is not surprising to see those scandalized of Jesus, those who find it difficult to believe in his divinity, upon too much concentration on his humanity. The mystery of incarnation of the Son of God remains always, in all times a great motive of and for scandal. Indeed, what scandalizes man is not the hierarchical divine affirmation of the existence of a superior reality, but the surprising proclamation that such a reality has entered into time and history, that the divine is united with the human. Be that as it may, the incredulity of the people of Nazareth is a representation of the incredulity that has accompanied this great mystery in the history of man, for more than over two thousand years ago. However, from the ecclesial point of view, we may well affirm that the humanity of Christ today can be likened to the Church, which Christ has wanted as a community of salvation, and drawing the issue further, the humanity of Jesus can equally be the persons Christ has called to lead his church (Pope, Bishops and Priests) with their limits and defects. Again, from the anthropological standpoint, the humanity of Jesus can be the suffering humanity, those abandoned and rejected.

     Notwithstanding all these, today Jesus invites us to go beyond mere appearance, and to really see in Him the Son of God, not just the Son of Mary, to recognize his divine origin, not only his earthly birth. What is required of us is a firm trust in God, to believe truly that His grace is sufficient for us. Our lack of trust and incredulity can be an obstacle for the realization of God’s project, remember Jesus didn’t perform any miracle in his home town because of their incredulity.

     Again, the second reading (2Cor. 12:7-10) offers us a plausible interpretative key to understanding the divine gestures, the way of overcoming the ‘scandal’ that is provoked by the humanity of Jesus, especially from the point of view of his fragility. Historically, this passage was written at the pick of Paul’s controversy over the false apostles who sort to undermine his influence among the Corinthians. St. Paul in his own way had the experience of this scandal. From one point he is a convert, drawn by Christ, he had extraordinary mystic experiences (vv.1-6), however, on the other hand, he encountered incomprehension and hostility, internally and externally, he talked about the “thorn in his flesh”. This indeed is not temptations to carnal pleasures as some have interpreted it. In fact, while some have interpreted the thorn of flesh to be a chronic ailment, others interpreted it better to be a sort of a chronic depression. This is to be understood only as an afflicting presence that the apostle himself prayed the Lord three times that it might depart and verse 10 could throw more light to this. He prayed three times to God to be liberated from it, but the Lord answered him “My grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness” (v.9). Indeed, human fragility becomes a privileged place that the power of God is manifested. St. Paul understood this, and entered into the logic of God, to the point that he later boasted of his weaknesses, “and that is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ’s sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong” (v.10). We can equally arrive at this conviction of faith. In the moment of our fragility and humanness, that is the great moment to entrust ourselves to God, we can draw strength from the word of God: “No, God chose those who by human standards are fools to shame the wise; he chose those who by human standards are weak to shame the strong, those who by human standards are common and contemptible-indeed those who count for nothing-to reduce to nothing all those that do count for something” (1Cor. 1:27-28). St. Paul truly, in this passage charted a way for us on how to deal with depression and weakness, in such a manner that it drives a Christian to use it positively, by reliance and trust on God’s grace, from which he finds strength in weakness.

     Above all else, beloved in Christ, we pray for the manifestation of Christ’s power and miracle in our lives, may our weaknesses not stand as a stumbling block in our encounter with Christ, so that His grace will be made manifest in us and we may be able to recognize Him truly as the Savior of mankind! Amen!!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)