INTRODUCTION
Today’s readings introduce Jesus as a prophet and explain how prophets and other messengers from God inevitably suffer rejection. The readings challenge us to face rejection and hardship with prophetic courage.
FIRST READING: Ezekiel 2:2-5
Today’s reading from Ezekiel captures the same experience in the career of the prophet Ezekiel, who lived about 600 years before Jesus. Ezekiel is warned by God that, though he has been called by Yahweh and sent with a message to the people of Israel, they will almost certainly refuse to hear and accept his message. God is angry about the rebelliousness of the people to whom He is sending His prophet. Ezekiel was the first person called to become a prophet while the Chosen People were in Exile in Babylon. While the false prophets were consoling people, saying that the Exile was soon to end and they’d be going home to a newly prosperous Jerusalem soon, Ezekiel resolutely foretold the further destruction of Jerusalem. No wonder he was hated and rejected by the people! Those who accept the call of God and seek to follow Him may also face indifference, hostility, contempt, scorn, weakness, hardship, persecution, insults and rejection.
SECOND READING: 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10
In today’s passage, St. Paul makes the Corinthian Christians to understand he is not a superhuman, and that he learned to be strong in the faith through a continuous trial without being discouraged by his errors. He affirms that God was interested in his weakness and that is why the weaker he became, the more room he created for the Spirit of God to work through him. In the midst of a conflict with the Corinthian Christian community, Paul reveals two of his deepest spiritual experiences. In one he had an ecstatic theophany when he received an exceptional revelation. In the other, he fervently prayed to have the unidentified cause of great suffering removed but was given instead the reassurance that God’s grace would be sufficient for his every need. And by the virtue of his perseverance Paul discovered positive value of suffering. In other words, he understood that suffering, accepted as God’s gift, produces patience, sensitivity, compassion, and a genuine appreciation of life’s blessings. Such a positive disposition to weakness and suffering for the sake of Christ became the source of his spiritual fortification and growth. It is an invitation for us Christians to see our weaknesses not as an impediment to serving the Lord. We can make the difference by submitting them in the hand of Him who is greater than them and who is capable of transforming us into great instruments for the Gospel. We must be convinced that nothing can stop us from the love of God. Such a conviction will open us to the fountain of Christ’s power that transforms weaknesses into strengths.
GOSPEL: Mark 6: 1-6
Today’s Gospel scene is the famous home visit of Jesus. It was natural that He should Nazareth where He grew up so that He could also announce the Gospel there. Just as it was his usual practice, on a Sabbath day, He went to the nearby synagogue. The synagogue setting offered people the opportunity to deliver any distinguished message through the permission of the ruler of the synagogue. The Nazarenes might have heard of the fame of Jesus as a great preacher and miracle worker in other places in Galilee. Therefore they couldn’t hesitate to experience the same in their land. The choice of the text from the prophet was not invented by Jesus. A passage from the Torah (any of the five books of the Law) and from the Prophets were usually read on Sabbath gatherings in the synagogues. Eventually, the text taken by Jesus was a mission statement of the prophet Isaiah which found its fulfilment in the life and mission of Jesus. Thus, He demonstrated in his “inaugural Address”. Unlike other prophets, Jesus saw himself as the messenger and the message. That is why He taught with such an authority that eventually led to mixed reactions among his countrymen.
The first reaction of the people was one of astonishment. Luke says they were “amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.” But Mark says that they asked one another: “Where did this man getall this? Although their curiosity to know the source of the wisdom of Jesus was led by the distinguished nature of his message. This led to further inquiries about his background and parentage. This is not a problem in itself. However, their problem began when they could not reconcile the quality of the message with the nature of his background. They were carried away by their prejudice his family: “Is not this the carpenter (from a poor family)…?” They were sure that He had no formal training in Mosaic Law. But the problem is not just limited to the fact that a “carpenter’s son,” was skilled in interpreting the Scriptures. They also could not understand how a mere carpenter could be their political Messiah who would liberate them from Roman rule and re-establish the Davidic kingdom of power and glory. They further doubted his credibility by objecting his “messiahship” because He had no distinguished lineage. That is why they identified him as “the son of Mary” (v. 3) rather than with the traditional title, “son of Joseph” (“Bar Joseph”) title. Such a reference could be seen as an insult, because men in that culture were identified by who their fathers were (see John 1:45).Jesus responded: “No prophet is accepted in his native place.”
LIFE MESSAGES:
1) Let us face rejection with prophetic courage and optimism.
The story of Jesus’ rejection by fellow-townsmen in Nazareth is a story that we can identify with because it is a story that has happened to most of us. We might have experienced the pain of rejection caused by hurts, wounds, betrayal, divorce, abandonment, violated trust, trauma, neglect, or abuse in its various forms. What about rejection by those closest to us? Often our friends, families, or childhood companions fail to listen to, and refuse to accept, the words of grace, love and encouragement that we offer to them, because they are so familiar with us as we were that they are unable to see us as God’s appointed instruments, the agents of God’s healing and saving grace. Let us check also the other side of the coin. How often do we discount God’s agents through prejudice? How often do we fail to see God’s image in them because of our own hardheartedness? We must realize that God’s power is always available to transform even the people we see as most unlikely.
2) We must have the prophetic courage of our convictions.
By our Baptism, God calls us to be prophets like Jesus, sharing Jesus’ prophetic mission. The task of a prophet is to speak God’s truth. We must never be afraid of this call. We must rely on Jesus to supply us with the courage to oppose the many evils in our society. Let us think of the millions of unborn children whose lives a being terminated on daily basis by ungodly political ideologies that legalize abortions. Today our media is filled with ideologies that continue to poison the minds of the young and the old to see reasons to accept materialistic hedonism, perverted sex, and many other secular ideological impositions that continue to trample on the sanctity and sanity of human life and dignity. Of course our society today tells youngsters that promiscuous sex, drugs and alcohol are means by which they express their individuality and so called freedom. This deviated morality requires Christians with prophetic courage who are ready to embrace the path of prayer, penance for reparations and to speak out against any form of moral evil even as men of the church’s hierarchy have become means of diffusing most of these secular ideologies. God loves everyone of us but He does not love everything we do. We cannot continue to canonize everything we do and to impose them on the society in the name of choice and freedom.
3) We need ”to speak the Truth of Christ with love,” never being hypocritical or disrespectful.
We must never remain silent in the face of evil for fear of being thought “politically incorrect.” Jesus was not against conflict, if it promoted Truth. Jesus taught us to give respect and freedom to others, without condoning or encouraging sinful behavior. Love does not tolerate destructive behavior but, nevertheless, it sometimes causes pain—-just as a surgeon must sometimes hurt in order to heal. We can be kind, charitable, and honest and forgiving as we speak forth our own convictions as Jesus did in the synagogue. (Fr. Anthony Kadavil).
PRAYER
Our hope is all in You Lord Jesus who by your gracious love have called us as faithful witnesses of your kingdom on earth. Grant us the prophetic courage to remain on the path of righteousness and to continue to lead the people you have made back to You. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
