Jesus' Visit to our "Nazareths"

In today's Gospel, Mark 6: 1-6, Jesus visits his hometown, Nazareth, and speaks in the synagogue where He worshipped as a child.  The people are astounded by His wisdom, by the mighty deeds that He has performed. They take offense at Him:  "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, the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" 

Every day Jesus comes to visit us in our homes, our "Nazareths". Are our hearts open? Or are they closed by our jealousies, our prejudices, our discriminatory attitudes and behaviors toward those of different beliefs, different color, different sexual orientation, different cultures, greater or lesser intelligence, greater or lesser educational backgrounds, careers we look down upon or up to?  Are we closed to the persons in which Jesus disguises Himself, through whom Jesus sends His messages of love, mercy, wisdom; through whom Jesus challenges us?  Is Jesus unable to work His miracles in our lives for the reasons given here?

Listening to God's Messengers in our Lives

In today’s first reading, Jer 26: 1-9, Jeremiah is asked to deliver a message to the house of Judah, warning them that they are to become a city of ruin like Shiloh, remembered as a disgrace and referred to in future curses.  Not a pretty picture, by any stretch of the imagination. The people of the city of Judah can change that if they repent of their wrongdoing and return to the Lord.  “Perhaps,” God says through Jeremiah, “they will listen and turn back, each from his [or her] evil way, so that I may repent of the evil I have planned to inflict upon them for their evil deeds.”  Empowered by God, eager to do God’s bidding and, no doubt, hoping that the people do repent, Jeremiah delivers the Lord’s message. The result? The people attack him and demand that he be put to death.

In the Gospel, Mt 13: 54-58,  Jesus enters his home village and he, too, excited to return home, to bring Good News to the people, is met with disappointment.  “Who is this man? Is he not the son of a carpenter? Where did he get this wisdom?” And “they took offense at him.” In fact, they attempted to throw him over the cliff, to kill him. They’d have nothing to do with him, much less listen to him.

You and I have similar experiences throughout our lifetime. We enter our marriages all excited about building a great life together. Or we join a  religious community all excited about a complete commitment to the disciplines of religious life, the demands of community life, willing to make whatever sacrifices marriage or religious life  demand of us. Then things begin to fall apart! We become lax. We drift into acting independently, non-collaboratively, less and less willing to sacrifice for  one another. “Me first” creeps into our lives. “My way” becomes my preferred way of doing things. We are faced with the need to repent, reform, make sacrifices, look at how we are moving further and further away from our first fervor, our initial willingness to work at our marriages, our commitment to the ascetical practices that enhance community living and whereby we live for each other’s well-being and the common good of the family, of the community.  Am I willing to change, to be converted, to be called to greater faithfulness, to renew my commitment to the other, to something greater than myself? Or, like the people of Judah and the people of Nazareth do I attack the person who hints at the need that I make changes in my way of acting, that I become more family centered/community centered?