IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER, THE SON OF MARY? (Mark 6:3)

⏰FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)

📑Ezek 2:2-5; Ps 123:1-2a, 2bc, 3-4 (R.v.2ef); 2 Cor 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6

We are obviously aware of that saying that over-familiarity breeds contempt. The kind of reception that Jesus got from his kinsmen in the Gospel today explains that well.

For some weeks before now, we have been seeing, from the Gospel of Mark, the divine power at work in Jesus. And the result has mostly been reverence for him and for God through him in the foreign nations and surrounding villages (cf. Mark 1:28, 45; 2:12; 4:41; 5:20). But now, he came among his own people who had watched him grow from his childhood, and the result was contempt.

True enough, Jesus was a nobody a son of a carpenter and uneducated. But that is where the main message lies. It is not about the importance or quality of the person but about the power of God at work in the person. The First Reading tells us that much. The prophet Ezekiel was sent to the rebellious house of Israel and was asked not to get wearied over the type of reception he might get from the people. As the Spirit of the Lord is in him, the people would come to know that a prophet is among them.

Definitely, without the power of God, Ezekiel would have been nothing. That is also the line of thought of St. Paul in the Second Reading. In his weakness, the grace and power of God becomes manifest in his life. Unfortunately, the Jews, the kinsmen of Jesus, failed to see this power of God at work in him. They were beclouded by the humanity of Jesus.

Most times, we are equally as guilty as the kinsmen of Jesus. How do we look upon the priests that carry the message of God to us? Do we not see them as people we are so familiar with and should treat as it pleases us? Are we not equally guilty of being too familiar with sacred things to the extent of treating them with contempt? When last did you go to Church just because you want to worship God and not just because you need to fulfill an obligation? When was the last time you received the Holy Communion from a pure heart than out of show for righteousness? Are we not too familiar with God now that we can make noise freely in the Church and play with our gadgets when we ought to be worshipping God?

We must note that these acts of contempt work against the blessings we ought to receive from a faithful discipleship of Christ. It was due to that contempt that Jesus could not do much work among his people.

May the Holy Spirit renew in us, respect for God and the things of God so that we might not miss the blessings of God and the salvation he has won for us. Amen.

Have a blessed and miraculous Sunday. Peace be with you.