14th Sunday of the year

SUNDAY 14 B

We have all heard of the term ‘expert’. Mark Twain famously defined an expert as “some guy from out of town”.  Our unfamiliarity with someone new addressing us lends that person a greater air of authority or credibility or objectivity.  The old Irish proverb goes – ‘an rud is annamh is iontach’ – the rare thing is wonderful’.  In contrast we all know the expression ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’

There are three aspects to today’s Gospel:  The messenger – the crowd – the message.

The Messenger

What most strikes me about today’s encounter of the Lord Jesus with His own people is their rejection of Him and His failure to impress them: where did the man get all this?  That can be our experience too – of being rejected by our own family and friends and peers when we have something important to say.  How difficult it is not to hurt the feelings of a family member if they are going astray?  How difficult for us in our turn if we are at the receiving end of advice or ‘a lecture’ from a parent or relative?  We roll up our eyes and think to ourselves ‘not again’.  Those with a chronic problem like gambling, idleness or alcoholism, weight gain, and we will not listen readily when a family member says there is a problem. They may be right but we are closed to change, and we can even retaliate by answering in kind.

The crowd

The questions the crowd/congregation/synagogue/village people ask – 4 of them – all amount to the same thing. It is not a question of open-ended questions that hint at an openness to faith that we see right through the Gospel - that we have seen already - such as ‘who is this man that even the winds and sea obey Him?’ Rather, among His own people it is a case of ‘who does he think he is?’

Rejection for our part is not easy to take.  Rather than experience yet again the hardship of ejection, the pain of failure to succeed in effecting changes in our family or community, we would rather say and do nothing in order to avoid confrontation and conflict – a very understandable reaction to past pain and proven failure – the fear of angry rejection and personal ridicule and isolation by those who know us.  We would rather go on with the flow and strive for acceptance and a ‘quiet life’ rather than say what needs to be said – the prophetic truth.  It is easier to choose ‘safety’ over suffering. (See the movie Shadowlands on this theme).

The message

Yet it is the role and duty of the prophet to boldly speak the truth – a prophet speaks on behalf of someone else – in this case God Himself.

There is the urgent necessity of proclaiming repentance - despite obstacles and discouragement – even, and especially, to a generation and to a people that will not listen due to lack of faith. 

The difficult messages to proclaim - the so-called 'hot issues', of the sanctity of human life from natural conception to natural death; the indissolubility of marriage, that marriage involves by definition a man and a woman - are difficult to proclaim and defend. But the Church and the world need witnesses to life, truth and love.

To be a prophet is to be a witness to the truth.  St Paul in the second reading had to put up with ‘weaknesses, hardships, insults and persecutions’ (WHIPs), but he was consoled by the strength that Christ gave him.  Ezekiel in the First Reading is told by God that ‘whether the people listen or not they shall know a prophet was among them.’  As Blessed Mother Teresa famously said: ‘God did not call me to be successful: he called me to be faithful’.

What change do we bristle at? What message do I need to hear? What must my family, workplace, community hear now - despite the cost to myself? Christ has walked this lonely path, St Paul in his turn, Ezekiel and the prophets, and yet at my baptism, this too is my calling. As St Paul learned - as we also learn  - Christ is my strength.