Walking with Jesus: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ezekiel 2:2-5; 2 Corinthians 12:3-2cd; Mark 6:1-6

I think people feel unwelcome at different times in their lives. It could become apparent when returning to your old hometown … and people with whom you were close on a sports team, or neighbors or friends, now seem to brush you off. I look at the situations in my life when I've felt like a failure. What happened that shook me up and left me with a low opinion of myself? It might have been a soured relationship or one that had crashed. Another could have been a trusted institution that had revealed its brokenness. What are we to do with failure? What are we to do when we feel God has abandoned us? What is open to us when we don’t even know where God can be found?

Today we are celebrating our Independence. Our ancestors did not like people controlling their lives and their attitudes. So:

227 years ago, on July 4, 1776,
This great nation, the United States of America,
In a struggle for what was right and free,
Was proudly born …
May we celebrate that precious freedom
For which our forbears fought so bravely …
The freedom that is inherent
In the Stars and stripes, our revered flag …
Celebrate Freedom
This Fourth of July!

• We have much background to look back on: Jesus seemed to be a failure. Today’s gospel recalls how He came to His hometown and they expected their prized citizen to be the sensation everyone was talking about: show US your MOST spectacular miracles. He won’t do it … he's a definite failure … no wonder He never married.
• It certainly seemed that St. Paul was a failure too. He wrote that he had a thorn in his flesh and prayed three times for it to go away. Wasn’t he close to God? God had chosen him in a spectacular way; how come God did not take this thorn away? Did Paul have enough faith? It certainly doesn’t seem he did, and yet he is telling us to have faith … hmm.
• Christianity doesn’t seem be doing too well today, and the Catholic Church seems to be tumbling from within and without. People still seem to be talking Jesus, but who is this Jesus they are talking about: a savior? Messiah? Prophet? What is Jesus telling us today?

God makes it very clear to Ezekiel that the Israelites are a tough crowd. They “… have rebelled against Me … as their ancestors rebelled … they are hard of face and obstinate of heart  [Ezekiel 3:3-4] … I am sending you to them." God is sending you and me to those who don’t believe that God is a God of love, compassion, caring, forgiveness. We, as all baptized believers, are called to boldly proclaim God’s love and Jesus’ example by the way we live our lives, EVEN when the crowd resembles those Israelites who were obstinate at heart.

Jesus as the hometown boy … and we continue to misjudge people today because of their skin color, educational background, manner of speaking, clothes they wear, and cultures they were born into. What blessings in them do I miss because of my misjudgment?

Our Baptism puts us on equal footing as sons and daughters of God … brothers and sisters to Jesus. Each of us, everyone, everywhere, is made in the image and likeness of God who is love. God chose 12 but nowhere were they to do it alone. Jesus empowered them to empower others for God by being love, healing, compassion, forgiveness.

So I reflect on:

• Under what circumstances have I been willing to take on bad odds to do the right thing?
• Has an episode of failure ever led to success? Has a broken relationship been mended stronger? Has an hour of darkness become a new light?
• When am I tempted to treat people unequally: in the case of wealth, celebrity, popularity, poverty? Where?
  

Sacred Space 2021 states:

“What kind of reception does Jesus expect when He returns to His hometown? Instead of mixing with strangers or newly found disciples, He will now be surrounded by people who have known Him all His life, who saw Him grow from childhood to adulthood, who regard Him as one of their own. Does He expect to be feted as a success story, one who has brought honor to His place of origin? Or does He foresee that He will be disowned, treated as an upstart who has risen above His station?

“The citizens of Nazareth recognize the wisdom of Jesus’ teaching and accept that He has performed ‘deeds of power’ — yet they reject Him! Why? Have you ever seen this dynamic of negativity and cynicism operating in other communities? In church life? In politics? Have you ever been sucked into it yourself?"

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE CROSS: GOD LOVES US. CAN I SEE THAT FROM THE CROSS? DO I KNOW IT MEANS MY CROSSES ARE MY PASSAGEWAY TO GOD’S LOVE? AM I CARRYING MY CROSSES WITH LOVE? THAT’S THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN. HAVE I MADE A DECISION TO GO THERE?