My Sunday Daily Blessings
Be still, quiet your heart and mind, the Lord is here loving you,
talking to you.................
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Roman Rite Calendar)
*First Reading: Ez 2:2-5
Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.
But you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD!
And whether they heed or resist--for they are a rebellious house--they shall know that a prophet has been among them.
*Responsorial Psalm: Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4
"Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy."
* Second Reading: 2 Cor 12:7-10
That I, Paul, might not become too elated, because of the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.
Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."
I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.
Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
*Gospel Reading: Mt 6:1-6
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, "Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?"
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house."
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.
**Reflection:
“Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him (Jesus). Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own house.”
Today’s Gospel selection for this Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time shows Jesus being rejected by the people of his hometown. Why should they do this? One commentary I read gives the answer that Jesus was too familiar to them for them to take him for what he really was. They thought they knew him through and through and they really didn’t know him at all.
The more I read this Gospel the more I get the feeling that the cause of their rejection was envy. Jesus was doing some pretty amazing things. He was, to say the least, not very conventional and these unconventional ways were challenging them to change. Jesus was reaching out to the “unclean,” he raised the position of women in society, he prescribed forgiveness rather than revenge and retaliation, he told them to turn the other cheek to insults, he was indifferent to some of their most sacred religious rules, even the demons and storms obeyed him. Where did he get all this? Why shouldn’t they be envious?
Evagrius Ponticus was an influential Egyptian monk in the early church who died in the year 399. He was greatly concerned with what we now call the capital sins. He referred to them aslogismos and defined these as thoughts that befog the mind so that slowly, bit by bit, the person drifts into a world of self-destructive fantasy.
Envy is one of these capital sins, and for us in our modern times can be defined as a feeling of discontent with regard to another’s advantages, successes, possessions, etc. Understood this way, envy could have been the reason for Jesus’ rejection in his hometown.
Evagrius Ponticus, however, had a different idea of the meaning of envy that also could have been the cause of this rejection. For Evagrius, envy involves an obsession with the past, a haunting remembrance of the “good old days, the happy times” now gone and never to return. This is a kind of depression, a sitting around wallowing in fantasies of things being other than they are or as they were in past times. All of the Jewish conventional ways of doing things were being challenged by Jesus’ unconventional ways, as we saw above. For those who heard it, the good old days were gone forever and will not return! The people in Jesus’ village of Nazareth did not want to look ahead at the new, but rather wanted to look back at the old. Hence, the teaching of Jesus about not being able to put new wine in old wine skins. They didn’t want to change.
This Gospel urges us to reflect on how we react to any newness in our world or Church as opposed to the 30’s, 40’s or 50’s, etc. Do I accept these changes? Why or why not? How is my possible rejection of them affecting my life?
Fr. Howard
***Prayer:
Lord God,
when our world lay in ruins,
you raised it up again on the foundation of your Son’s Passion
and Death.
Give us grace to rejoice in the freedom from sin
which he gained for us,
and bring us to everlasting joy.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Sources:
*Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
**Fr Howard (William) Hansen (1930-2011)
Homilies by Fr Howard
Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center
Minneapolis, St. Paul Minnesota
***Universalis On-line
http://www.Universalis.com
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