(Homily 14th 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. Uncountable times, 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 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).
Interestingly, in the Old Testament, the book of Exodus captured the response
and the work of God in a similar but, rather 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! Here lies the ‘scandal’! 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! Jesus
is indeed too great!
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), it was not going to be an easy task. God made him a prophet to his
own people. (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 and incredulity before the
prophets. In the words of the prophet: “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. A point worthy of
note is that God sent him to speak His words not his own words, “I am sending
you to them, to say, “Lord Yahweh says this” (v.4). Today we have many self-acclaimed prophets who speak their
own words and what the people desires to hear. 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
works in many towns and villages, Jesus turns to his people in Nazareth, but he
was not favorably welcomed. In fact, in the Lucan 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, his miracles and 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. 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! 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
hierarchy of the 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.
At
the heart of today’s message is the underlying truth that when faith is absent,
the power of Jesus cannot work.
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, our readings today featured
three prophets (Ezekiel, Jesus and Paul) who were rejected and scorned by their
own people for the message they brought. First, Ezekiel is among his own Jewish
exiles, taken off by the Babylonians into captivity. Second, we see Jesus with
his own people, in his hometown, accompanied by his disciples, rejected by his
kinsmen. Third, we see Paul defending himself and his ministry against those
who doubt his authenticity and his persecutions and constraints, for the sake
of Christ. These prophetic voices are met by obstinate people. The message they
bear has its origins in God, not man. What unites them is the fact that they
were all bearers of the divine message and they did not allow the voice of
hostility to overshadow their voices. What
is it today that is overshadowing your prophetic voice? 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)
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