This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
In today’s gospel, we see Jesus frustrated at the inability of those from his own town to recognize and accept His mission, and unable to perform many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
We may wonder why it is that, as Jesus says, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” (Interestingly Moses, through whom God is working in the first reading, was largely exempted from this phenomenon in the divine plan; though a Hebrew, he had been exiled from his own people as a baby.)
The gospel provides ample clues as to the reasoning for this hometown rejection of prophets, as it cites the people’s familiarity with Jesus’ background and kin. Bottom line: They knew Jesus’ human normalcy and ordinariness; in their minds, prophets were supposed to be something utterly different, in some ways superhuman. All flaming chariots, glowing faces, spontaneously combusting sacrifices, and tablets shattering portentously on the ground.
But Jesus, who was to be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s suffering servant prophecy, was not exempt from the human condition and its limitations in any sense. While He never sinned, the limitations deriving from the penalty for original sin affected Him as much as any other, by His own eternal design and will.
Jesus’ subjection to these limitations in His own regard led to a lack of faith among the people of His town. And later, to further discourage faith in Him, it is these limitations that the Pharisees throw at Him at His crucifixion: “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, and come down from the cross!”
It is the experience of these same limitations and penalties that threaten to erode our faith in Jesus, also. As we suffer in life, and behold the chaos that seems constantly to befall humankind, we can unconsciously or consciously consider that Jesus is powerless against these. With His coming, none of these sufferings and limitations on earth were eliminated. Did He really do anything at all? Where is His power?
The truth is that confident power often manifests itself in restraint. Jesus, the Omnipotent, did not come to impose a reversal of original sin or personal sin, with all their earthly consequences and effects, upon us. He came to open a door, to allow us individually to choose the obedience that Adam and Eve had rejected on our behalf. And on those who do choose Him and that door, He confers immense, even supernatural dignity, and power–power to become children of God (cf. Jn. 1:12).
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus for staunch and unyielding protection from the negative influences of the base and the banal on your faith and trust in Him. Ask Him to increase that faith and trust every day, by whatever means He chooses, whether those involve beautiful gifts or difficult suffering.
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