
Mass readings for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Ezekiel 2.3-5 Psalm 123.1-4 2 Corinthians 12.7-10 Mark 6.1-6
I don’t know about any of you, but to read or hear the words “he could do no deed of power there,” is discouraging – that is, that’s my immediate response – and it plays into my own personal “thorn in the side” which is a tendency toward depression. I am deflated by encounters such as those that our Lord experienced, and I fear, I am not as resilient.
Jesus is powerless before the skepticism of people he’s known pretty much all his life. The phrase, “familiarity breeds contempt” comes to mind; even today, we encounter contempt for Christ and Christianity.
Now, there is the violent contempt of oppressive governments (such as we’ve seen lately in Nicaragua), but there is also a mundane variety. I do, pretty regularly encounter this kind in my travels. Now, most who express this every day antipathy, I don’t think they are even remotely aware of their attitude. And, of course, it’s not that they don’t think well of Jesus; many are even willing to agree to the creedal confession that he is the Son of God. The sticking point is the Church; the body of Christ in the world, the claims she makes with respect to her relationship to Christ. Yet, for those who readily dismiss the Church and recite the litany of her failings, we are left to ask, but for it, how are we to know Christ and his power? And, don’t forget, he most definitely intended that there be a Church built on Apostolic foundations, nourished by sacrament and word, these manifesting his presence in the world.
Deeds of power, miracles minor and great are still possible, I witness them; many of us have. The legacy of the Church, while acknowledging her sins, is on the whole something more than remarkable. She transformed society, birthed a civilization that, again for all its faults, has accomplished great things: ended slavery, brought prosperity to the masses (and that’s not just a product of modern capitalism – the standard of living consistently rose in the era of Christendom, for all that is mocked about it, people lived longer, healthier lives than their ancient forebears), the Church established the concept of human rights and equality before the law, and so on. I guess, the question many ask is, “what have you done for me lately?”
The Church is no longer an awesome and intimidating institution, I suppose. Rather, it is familiar, a little bedraggled, it does its work and receives some slight recognition and appreciation. It’s a nice place to go and be quiet.
What the people of Nazareth saw when looking at Jesus, did not particularly impress them. Again, I’m sure no one thought ill of the carpenter’s son; heck, a good many of them were probably related to him by blood or marriage. We can also assume that Jesus did not undergo some radical change in personality – this is a man they’ve known to be spiritual, intelligent, and kind, consistently so. What is new is this public ministry, and these overt “deeds of power.”
Now, there are these apocryphal gospels, that is ancient books about Jesus that are outside the authorized canon, written later than the four gospels we know, and they contain stories about Jesus’ childhood. These relate purported miraculous events; but the Church has never verified them; they were unknown to the Apostles. So, let’s say with some confidence that the miracles, the healings, the exorcisms, these are something new for the people of Nazareth.
So, I can then understand how people were confused, befuddled. I’m sure Jesus was always a good guy, a good neighbour and friend. If you had a problem, I’m sure you could pop round the workshop and bend his ear while he worked at his bench. I’m sure he had good advice too! And at the synagogue, when the men sat around discussing the scriptures, the fine points of the law, Jesus probably listened more than spoke, but when he did, it was thoughtful and insightful. Yet he had not stepped out, and stepped up. He had not hitherto asserted himself, but had kept his own counsel and waited for the appointed time.
So, that’s all he was to them: clever fellow, good carpenter, a man of depth and discernment; and I imagine good marriage material. And then this happens, he begins to speak up, and rather impertinently to assert himself over the elders of the community. Not in a manner that you might call rude or overtly disrespectful, but you know, there’s something just not right about what he’s doing. If it were a village in rural England, the home of my ancestors, we would be apt to hear someone complain that this sort of thing just isn’t done.
And yet, that is Christ’s role in the world – he is disruptive in a sly kind of way; nothing you can quite put your finger on, nothing that a magistrate can draw up as a formal charge, but he’s not playing by the unwritten rules, he’s not respecting the unspoken understandings.
And this is what the Church is intended to be. It’s not a polite, unassuming charitable organization that is to quietly go about its business. We are not to be a benevolent society working quietly in the background. We are to proclaim the gospel in word and deed such that the people may, to borrow from Ezekiel, “hear or refuse to hear.” And it may be quite frustrating for us today to see so many refuse to hear, or to selectively hear the saving message of God, but such is the current situation, much as it was those many years ago in Nazareth. Such is the situation with a great many within our Catholic community and our ostensibly Christian nation: they think they know who and what the Church is and ought to be: a place of quiescence and unquestioning benevolence.
Were there not among the Nazarenes sick, those troubled in mind, possessed by malignant spirits, the discouraged, those who toying with ideas of rebellion against Herod Antipas, against Rome (a project that would doom them to horrific death and destruction), those who were alienated from God and so, in their religious life, just going through the motions? They did not turn to Jesus, but refused him.
The phrase “seeing is believing” came to mind when reflecting on this passage. And apparently, Nazareth had some witnesses to Jesus’ miracles. “What deeds of power are being done by his hands!” many say. Yet, this story proves that seeing is not enough. In much of Jesus’ teaching we hear him repeat the idea that only those who have eyes can see the truth, those who have ears can hear it; implying that many refuse to open the eyes and ears of their hearts, of their souls, to what he is showing them, what he is saying to them. Indeed, it is a matter of believing so as to see, so as to listen; and that, as the Church understands, is a matter of grace and a willingness to cooperate with it. It’s not down to us – those who refuse a meaningful Christ in their lives are the ones who must choose.
We as the Church take the place of our Lord in this world as proclaimers of the gospel, as workers of miracles, as exemplars of holiness. That’s our job; we do this work together and singly, in our societies like the Knights and the CWL, in our evangelical work such as the recently finished ALPHA, in our catechetical work with adults and with children; we continue in this, and we do so even as we hear from family and friends words that dismiss the faith and denigrate Christ’s ability to make a real change in their lives. And we do this because we know how this story plays out, people do come. We heard last week how Jesus toured the villages around the Lake of Galilee, and upon returning to Capernaum, crowds gathered at the shore to receive him as he arrived by boat. It may not be among those closest to us that the gospel is immediately heard; but as you may know, it was eventually heard by Jesus’ family and old friends. Jesus’ cousin James became a prominent and early leader of the Church; and one of her first martyrs.
As I said last week, the matter for us is to find a way to get the word out, to get Christ out there to be encountered and known; and in some instances, to shatter the complacency of many who think they know what the Church is.
The Church is not a collection of bishops and a Pope, or beautiful old buildings, religious art, ancient texts, or obscure rituals, it is the body of Christ composed of the many, such as gather here, who live in him and through the Holy Spirit, live in his power and show forth his glory in words and deeds of mercy, justice and charity, all done and proclaimed unabashedly in his name and for his glory.
Amen.