Saturday, July 4, 2015

14th Ordinary Sunday, Year B, 05.07.2015

Ezekiel 2:2-5 / 2 Cor 12:7-10 / Mark 6:1-6

Today being a Sunday, for most of us, it would be a day of rest.

But more often than not, it is quite the opposite. Not that today is a day of unrest. But resting might be the last thing we can ever do today.

Sunday can be called the busiest day of the week. We bring our children over to church for catechism class and then to whatever class we can think of – swimming, music, tuition, etc.

Or we would doing our groceries, visit the in-laws, going shopping (it’s the Great Singapore Sale!).

But no matter what we need to do and where we need to go, at the end of the day, we need to go back to where we started from, and that is - home.

Going home may seem to be like quite a comforting thought. After all there is no place like home. But that depends on how we say it – it can have a two different meanings. Maybe the following might show us what it means.

A man is stopped by the police around 1 am and he is asked where he is going at this time of the night. 

The man replies, "I am on my way to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effects it has on the human body, as well as smoking and staying out late." 

The police officer then asks, "Really? And who is giving that lecture at this time of night, and where will it be held?" 

The man replies, "That lecture would be given by my wife, and it would be held at home." 

So no matter what, and whatever the time would be, and no matter who is there, and whether it is a comforting feeling or not, we still will have to go home.

In today’s gospel passage, we heard of Jesus going back to His home town with His disciples.

Having been away for a while, it would have been a good feeling to be back home again, to see His mother, to catch up with friends and to be back to familiar surroundings.

Things at the home town may not have changed much, but something has changed. Jesus had changed. 

From the time He left and now that He had come back, He had certainly changed.

Because with the coming of the Sabbath, Jesus began to teach in the synagogue, and that astonished the people of His home town. 

Obviously that was something that He did not do before He left.

They wondered at His wisdom and His miracles. They traced out His family connections. And finally they came to a conclusion – they would not accept Him.

Jesus had changed, but to them He was still a carpenter.

And carpenters are not teachers and they cannot be teachers. For the people of His home town, that was the opinion as well as the conclusion. 

And the last line of the gospel passage tells us the reaction of Jesus – He was amazed by their lack of faith.

We would have thought that the people of His home town was rather biased against Him, their minds were probably as small as their town, their minds were closed even though they admitted that there was wisdom in Jesus.

But Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith. Because faith would help us see realities, spiritual as well as rational, and faith would also open the heart to accept these realities. 

And one reality is that home is not necessarily home sweet home. The following dialogue may show us what this reality is.

Wife was busy packing in her clothes. Husband - Where are you going?
Wife - I'm moving to my mother’s. Husband also starts packing his clothes.
Wife - Now where are you going? Husband - I'm also moving to my mother’s.
Wife - And what about the kids? Husband - Well I guess ... If you are moving to your mother’s and I'm moving to my mother’s ... They should move to their mother’s.
Clothes unpacked… (hopefully…)

The reality is that the home, the family, as well as society is not as rosy as we might want to see it.

And from some of the petitions that I read (so that I can offer a prayer for them) it is quite obvious that the home can be a stressful place and family members are living in tension, and this in turn affects society at large.

The family and society has gone into two disturbing directions.

The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, whether it is a sexual orientation, or a religious direction, or a habitual addiction, you must fear or hate them.

The second is that to love someone, you must agree with everything they believe or do, even if it is morally wrong.

Both directions are wrong but the reality is that they don’t seem to be so obvious.

So even within the family there is fear and hate among members because they can’t agree with and accept each other. And what happens in the family is reflected also in society.

And when it comes to loving their children, parents may want to suppress discipline and morality and be silent when it comes to pre-marital sex and other sexual issues.

These are disturbing issues and we don’t feel comfortable about it and we would rather not talk about it.

But when Jesus taught in the synagogue, His teachings would have disturbed His listeners so much so that they would not accept Him.

But as the 1st reading puts it, whether they listen or not, they must know that there is a prophet among them.

A prophet is like a thorn in the flesh and the prophetic voice is not comfortable to listen to.

Because it awakens in us God’s law that is engraved in our hearts. 
God’s law is the law of love, and it is a love that has moral principles.

May God’s law of love be proclaimed and practised first and foremost at home and in the family. 

Then the family will truly be at home and society will in turn practice what is right and just.