14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 6:1-6
Last Sunday the Gospel stories brought us into contact with the person of Jesus. Perhaps we were impressed by how real Jesus appeared to be; his emotions, his interest, his compassion and attention to the ordinary things of life and living. He is portrayed as one of us.
Today we see Jesus portrayed in a different light. Like all the prophets who had gone before him, he experiences rejection and incredulity. Why would one, who had performed such marvellous deeds as healing a woman who had suffered for twelve years and raising a little girl from death, not be instantly accepted and lauded? The answer would seem to be, because he was familiar, known too well, perhaps too ordinary!! We humans are never satisfied! Certainly we seem to need someone and something out -of -ordinary to shake us up and make us take notice. The kind of scepticism that Jesus encountered is not outside our own experience. It is deeply embedded in some of our more familiar phraseology; ‘who does he think he is? Sure don’t we all know where he came from? Didn’t we know them when they hadn’t a seat to their trousers or a shoe to their foot?’ Ezekiel, the prophet of today’s first reading, tells us from his experience that there is a long history behind rejecting people just because they are ordinary, one of ourselves.
Familiarity does indeed breed contempt and sometimes it is considered ‘cool’ to reject what has been traditionally acceptable. We may need to examine our attitude to the Church and Church teaching. The Church is the ‘gathering’ of those who put their faith in Christ. We have no grounds for complacency or smugness. Neither need we be ashamed or apologetic about our membership of the Church. As Church people we are Christ people; accepting him listening to him, following him and proclaiming him precisely because he chose to be one of us. The final word of the Gospel is: ‘He was amazed at their lack of faith’. May the Lord be amazed at the strength of our faith!