A Few Words On "The Word"

July 9, 2006
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 6: 1-6

And Just Who Does He Think He Is?

Bet this has happened to you. You do something at school or work that everybody recognizes is fantastic, the best, the most. You're flying. You're psyched. You go home and (a) your family thinks it's no big deal; and/or (b) your parents not only pay no attention to your accomplishment, they actually start nagging you about something else they think you didn't do or didn't do well enough. Sheesh!

Years ago, when Father Tom Doyle, OP began to figure out how many priests were molesting children, he tried to tell the conference of bishops. They fired him. When six retired generals of the U.S. military tried to tell the government-and us!-that the war in Iraq was a bogus mess, higher-ups argued with them then ignored them. "No prophet is welcomed in her, in his own town," the saying goes. And we get that saying from Jesus, who had the same thing happen to him.

Notice that the gospel says, "and Jesus could do no deed of power there." Why? Because his own friends figured they knew him, he was nothing special, just a poser. Compare the question they ask about Jesus ("Is this not what's-his-name from 9th grade?) to the question people asked about Jesus two weeks ago after the boat-thing: "Who is this that even wind and seas obey him?" (BTW: Always pay attention to any questions-no matter who asks them-in the gospels.)

So why didn't God blast 'em into believing with a lightning bolt or something? Doesn't work that way! That's forcing someone to believe, and if it's forced it's not faith. Ever since God became one of us in Jesus, everything's been a two-way street, everything's a group effort, a small-group exercise, a lab-partner kinda thing. We not only need God's help. God wants ours!

So mom or dad might be able to force you to go to church. But if you believe, that's all you. Believing in God, living like Jesus does not mean that you have all the answers, ace every test, got it all down and done. Questions, doubts, mistakes-it's all good. These things mean you're trying, you're working on it, even when they say "Who does she think she is? Who does he think he is?" When it comes to believing like God, living like Jesus, only one choice is a bad choice: Not caring enough to try.

Reflection Question

Why do you think it's so hard for us to recognize God living and acting in the people closest to us?

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