July 4th 2021. Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mark 6:1-6

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

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GOSPEL                                  Mark 6:1-6

Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised- in his own country among his own relations and in his own house'; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SHORTER HOMILY . . . Jesus teaches in the synagogue of his home town and is rejected. This happens at Nazareth, the place of faith, the place where Mary gave the most perfect response to the word of the Lord – “I am the servant of the Lord. Be it done onto me according to your word”. Jesus cannot perform great works here because the people do not believe and consequently do not open the door of their hearts to allow Jesus to work. Jesus is manifesting his identity, his greatness and his mission, but he is confronted with a petty attitude that only considers him in terms of mundane, horizontal things. He is placed in a box: he is a carpenter, a relative of such and such, the man whose mother became pregnant before she ought to. They are saying, in other words, that they know everything there is to know about this man. The truth is that Jesus is much more than they know. He is the son of Mary, yes, but also the Son of God. A man cannot be reduced to his homeland. The first person called by God, Abraham, was called to leave his own land. We are all called to be much more than our homeland, our job, our talents, our family connections. These connections are there, but they are not everything. If we wish to have a prophetic vision of who we are, then we need to confront these connections and not be bound by them. If we wish to be men or women of God, then we need to be more than our banal biology. This is exactly the definition of faith, to believe beyond biology, to see beyond the material composition of things. We are more than our appearance, more than what we have done. As our marvelous Pope of the youth, John Paul II, said, we are the work of God. Man is not the sum total of his sins and weaknesses, but the immense love that God expresses toward him and man’s response of “Yes” to that love. We can say yes or no to God. To say yes, we must go beyond biology and homeland, infancy and family. We must go beyond those things that make us banal and mediocre. We are all called to greatness for we are all called to paradise and to live our lives right now in the light of Paradise.

LONGER HOMILY FOLLOWS

The human being must never be reduced to his family background, occupation or social status

The Gospel recounts the visit of Jesus to his hometown of Nazareth, where, on the Sabbath, he teaches in the Synagogue. At the beginning of the passage we discover that his listeners are astounded at the fact that he stands up to teach them. At the end of the passage it is Jesus who is astounded at them because of their incredulity. We tend to find it hard to believe in the work of God, to accept that a person might be something more than a child of his parents, to imagine that a man could be something other than his occupation. The human being naturally sees everything in very predictable and boring terms. "You are what you are. Don't come here putting on a big show. We know who you are and where you've come from, and that's all there is to you". Many people turn away from the faith because it doesn't fit in with their way of looking at things, but faith should never be limited to our way of looking at things! And through the eyes of faith a person should never be limited to his work, his occupation, or his family connections. The human being is something more than all of these things. Jesus is dumbfounded when he is confronted by this attempt to limit him and categorize him. He knew of the greatness, power and love of God. He knew the Father and was stunned by the hardness of his listeners' hearts.

Unbelief is one of the most fearful powers of the human being. It can completely frustrate the power of God

This situation means that Jesus is unable to exercise his power in the usual way and is only able to heal a few of the sick. It is interesting to note that in these conditions one can only accept the grace of Christ if one is in a desperate condition. When one is rich in spirit one cannot receive the Kingdom of God. How blessed are the poor in Spirit! One has to be sick and aware of one's sickness before one can be touched by the healing hands of Christ. The incredulity of the human being is one of the most terrible powers that he possesses. God is omnipotent, but he must stop in front of the closed door of human unbelief. St Augustine said, "God who created you without your cooperation cannot save you without your cooperation". Human assent is absolutely fundamental for the work of God to be successful. Human openness towards God is the essential condition for the work of God to be efficient in us. Part of our greatness and nobility resides in the fact that we can genuinely say no to God. We have the capacity to frustrate and sadden the Holy Spirit.

Sin is rooted in a lack of openness to the work of God in us

This extraordinary mystery is the mystery of sin, for sin is always an act of rejection of God. All sin is the refusal of the work of God in us, a refusal of his law, a refusal of his word. It involves a rejection of the truth that is apparent to us in the workings of our conscience. We reject that truth and say "This is what I believe, and this is how things are, full stop". We have a liberty that God cannot force. Even if we say yes to God once, God continues to respect that liberty. On the next occasion, we will have to exercise our liberty all over again in order to say yes to God once again. But once we say yes to evil, the next yes to evil can become automatic. As the Gospel of John tells us, he who commits sin becomes a slave of sin.

We must retain a complete openness to Jesus, never thinking that we know him fully, refraining from labelling him, or labelling any aspect of the life of the church, or our own past. Jesus gives new sense and meaning to everything.

Jesus is unable to work miracles in Nazareth because of the hardness of people's hearts. Why was there such hardness of heart? Because the people there thought they already knew Jesus through and through. Jesus was put in a box and labelled, and this prejudice impeded the power of God. This text thus reveals something to us that ought to shake us to the core! God can be frustrated by our attitudes! We can be in the presence of that which leads into paradise and yet never enjoy it! And why not? Because we are locked in prejudiced ways of looking at things that prompt us to say, "I know you already. You have nothing of interest to say to me".

The hardness of the human heart is stupefying. We cast a cold eye on the work of God and think that we have comprehended it totally! But who can comprehend the action of God! Even the greatest of the saints continued to be surprised by God right up to the last moment of their lives. We do not know the Lord Jesus completely and we must wait for him to reveal himself to us. Let us not put labels on the work of God, on the life of the church, on the sacraments, nor even on the events of our own past. Jesus will give new meaning and sense to everything. Let us never think that we know the Lord Jesus! He is always something other. He is not simply the son of his mother, the cousin of his cousins, the labourer in his particular workshop. He is the Son of God, and this defies all of our categories.