FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2024)
Readings:
Ezekiel 2:2-5
Psalms 123:1-4
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Mark 6:1-6a
It is nearly universally understood that being a prophet in the time of the Bible comes with a very definite downside. All of the prophets of the Old Testament, and even John the Baptist and Jesus in the New, experience difficulties doing the work that God has asked them to do, namely, preaching God’s word. Yes, there is some prestige attached to God’s choice of a prophet, for we may never have heard of the names Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, and the like, had they not, sometimes reluctantly, accepted God’s invitation to be His mouthpiece. For the most part, however, preaching God’s word, oftentimes to a very resistant crowd, could be extremely difficult, if not dangerous (just ask Jeremiah who was thrown into a mud pit to die). Of Jeremiah one scholar writes: “Arrest, imprisonment, and public disgrace were his lot.” Makes one want to sign up on the dotted line!
Our first reading recounts the auspicious calling of Ezekiel by God: “Son of Man (a messianic title), I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against Me; they and their ancestors have revolted against me to this very day. 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 (it needed to be repeated?) – they shall know that a prophet has been among them.” God is not holding back, and He tells Ezekiel, do not fear, “even though there are briers or thorns and you sit among scorpions.” Comforting, very comforting! One can almost hear Ezekiel sheepishly say, “I’d rather not.” Ezekiel has 48 chapters of difficult reading. The Israelites rebel over and over again, and Ezekiel experiences very little success. It is not easy being a prophet.
Jesus, too, who has a share of being ‘prophet, priest, and king,’ does not have an easy time in today’s gospel from Mark. Indeed, all of the gospels recount the expected tension between Jesus and the Pharisees, Scribes, priests, and Sadducees, a tension which will inevitably lead to Golgotha. But the tension in today’s gospel is where it might not be expected – in Jesus’ “native place,” in His hometown. One might say that there should have been a certain fondness for Jesus in His hometown, a ‘hometown advantage’ if you will. The gospel does tell us that of those listening to Jesus in the synagogue “many who heard Him were astonished,” but it clearly was not a positive experience. The “astonishment” the hometown experienced seems to have more to do with jealousy, and a suspicious inclination which told His listeners that nothing good could come out of Nazareth. After all, “is he not the carpenter (as though that was a bad thing), the son of Mary” (perhaps she never distinguished herself in any way). Look at Jesus’ relatives! God doesn’t give ‘ordinary’ people insights and powers that the ordained and blessed don’t have! Jesus’ hometown “took offense at Him, and so 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.” It is the biblical example of “familiarity breeds contempt.”
The rather tepid acceptance of Jesus by the hometown crowd could be without consequence, but the gospel tells us that Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying His hands on them. Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith.” The only “amazement” was a negative spawned by people’s “lack of faith.” Kudos to the few who had their lives changed because their minds were opened to a new way of preaching, for Jesus preached with “authority,” something they clearly were unfamiliar with. While Jesus’ sending from God was substantively different than the sending of all the prophets who had gone before, He, nevertheless, experienced the same kind of rejection experienced by those only armed with God’s word.
Even our reading from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians gives us another insight into what those who preach God’s word experience – rejection. Two letters to the Corinthians have survived precisely because Paul’s experience with them was complicated at best. The letter itself is occasioned by events and problems that developed after Paul’s first letter reached Corinth. Paul was very concerned about the community in Corinth, and it was a place plagued by crisis after crisis. Unlike Nazareth, Corinth was a large cosmopolitan city, through which preachers and teachers often passed with messages at odds with what Paul was trying to teach them. The conflict with ‘intruders’ forces Paul to assert his authority, sometimes with little result. Then there is that “thorn in the flesh,” that Paul admits “beats him up” and keeps him humble. Whatever that thorn might be (Physical? Psychological?), it is clear Paul was frustrated and disturbed in spirit.
Paul, such a pillar of the Church, like the prophets before Him, and most especially like Jesus, experiences the hardship and challenges that all men and women face who decide to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. The Word of God oftentimes sits uncomfortably in hearts that are not strong in faith. If our faith is weak, we can expect that “no mighty deeds” will be done during our lives. But if our faith is strong, if it has been nourished by good deeds, and patience, and perseverance in times of adversity, the God might just choose to act through us. Like Paul we need to boast of our “weaknesses,” because only then can God’s grace work through us. When life gets us down, when we feel overwhelmed, we need to shout with Paul, ”My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Like Paul we need to be “content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” The last eight years has sadly taught me this lesson!
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