Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr B. July 7, 2024.
Readings
1st: Ezekiel 2:2-5
2nd: II Corinthians 12:7-10
Gospel: Mark 6:1-6
Theme: "The Cost Of God's Call - Rejection At Home"
My dear people of God, today is Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr B. Our reflections would touch on all the readings of today, including the Responsorial Psalm. During His public ministry Jesus never put Himself to any severer test than anytime He visited Nazareth, where He was born and raised. There are no severer critics of a man than those who know him from childhood. We are not surprised, therefore, that Jesus' preaching in the Synagogue of His own home town was greeted not with a kind of wonder and admiration but with a kind of contempt. "They took offence at him". How can "this boy" from a family of no credible history say and do such things? For the first time, familiarity had bred a mistaken contempt. The most hair-splitting task in the world is how to differentiate good from evil. What compounds the task is any attempt to picture the physical appearance of evil and the greatest mistake is to ever associate evil with ugliness, i.e. to picture evil as ugly; if it were truly so, evil could not have attracted millions with such relative ease. A real evil is very clean and neat, well brushed, glitteringly shiny and smelling of the best perfume. The most asked question by evil is, "How may I help you?". In fact, very few people know that evil is actually the backward spelling of live. By its very nature, evil is the most attractive thing in the world. No one can look at real evil once. No wonder it has so many "friends and loved ones", including priests and religious. In the Synagogue of Jesus' own home town, the people had a choice to make between good and evil and they made the wrong choice, as you and I often do. They rejected goodness (Jesus), not because of a personality clash or issues related to immaturity and behavior but because "we know him since his boyhood, we know his family members, etc". It was easier for them to do nothing than something, to be negative than positive, to be destructive than creative, in fact, to confuse good with evil.
Jesus' experience of rejection by His own people was not unprecedented. Long before He took Flesh and lived amongst us (Emmanuel), Ezekiel had suffered similar rejection by his own people. We need to remember that Ezekiel, who lived before, during and after the exile in Babylon, is the only one who received his call to be a prophet outside the Holy Land. We are referring to the Babylonian captivity in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel's critism and rejection came on the back of his courageous call on his people (the Jews) to repent from their sinful ways. The people's plung into sin was so dire that Ezekiel predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the eventual devastating of the whole nation.The fearless prophet bluntly challenged his people to make a decisive choice between faith in God and the shameless compromise of their identity (as God's chosen people) in favor of politics. Nothing is more bitter than truth (good/live) and very few people like to merely hear it, let alone accept it. So, the people rejected Ezekiel together with his message. "To hell with your message. We know you". The embrace of evil is like a cosy/comfortable bed, very easy to jump on but extremely difficult to come out of it. Our own time is no better. Many a Catholic shut off their minds in Church just because Fr. "A" or "B" is on the altar. Very sadly, that which is already full, even God cannot add anything to it. Nothing is more frustrating, demoralizing and paralyzing than to be rejected as God's spokesman, especially by one's own people, and that is "the cost of God's call". The truth, however, is that every sermon is preached in a given atmosphere. The atmosphere can either be a barrier through which the preacher's word cannot penetrate or an expectancy that the poorest sermon can make a lasting impact. Many a Christian message has been killed stone dead, not because they lack relevance and substance but because the minds of hearers are so poisoned and prejudiced against the preacher. Very fortunately, no preacher's destiny is tied to people who reject and/or walk away from him. Nothing reduces a man lower and renders him more useless than when he doesn't know and does not even know that he doesn't know.
St. Paul's own paralyzing experience was no less.He described his weakness in today's Second Reading as a "thorn in his flesh" which, indeed, is more troubling than physical rejection. He prayerfully wished that "thorn in his flesh" be removed. In response, the Lord said, "My grace is sufficient for you." This response is healing and renewing and should be personalised by every persevering preacher especially at our time. God would certainly not take away criticisms, rejection and persecution but His grace would always be sufficient. Precisely why the Psalmist says, "Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for His mercy." The Good News must be preached to the end of time, even to those who are unwilling to listen, to those who would refuse to see anything good in the preacher because of sheer prejudices and ignorance. The mandatory duty of every "soap maker" is to make soap available at all times and places whether people are willing to use the soap to clean their dirt/rot or not. May the prophetic voice of Mother Church remain loud and bold, without fear or favor because God's grace would always be sufficient. Continue to recite the Holy Rosary daily. God richly bless you and your family.
Rev. Fr. Thomas L. Debuo - Catholic Diocese of Damongo, Ghana. (0244511306/0243711926)