Homily
for July 9, 2006 Liturgical
Year B - Cycle II 14th
Sunday in Ordinary Time By
Fr. Joshua Nyoni
Topic: Accepting Christ + + +
Reading I Ez
2:2 - 5
As the LORD spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my
feet, and
I heard the one who was speaking say to me: Son of man, 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— they shall
know
that a prophet has been among them. Reading II 2
Cor 12: 7 - 10
Brothers and sisters:
That I, Paul, might not become too elated, because of the abundance of
the
revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan,
to beat
me, to keep me from being too elated.Three
times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said
to me,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in
weakness.” I will
rather boast most gladly of my
weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.Therefore, I am content with weaknesses,
insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of
Christ; for
when I am weak, then I am strong.
Gospel Mk
5: 1 - 6
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by
his
disciples.When the sabbath came he
began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.They said, “Where did this man get all
this?What kind of wisdom has been given
him?What mighty deeds are wrought by
his hands!Is he not the carpenter, the
son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?And are not his sisters here with us?”And they took offense at him.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.”So he was not able to perform
any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying
his hands
on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the first
reading today,
we have heard the prophet
Ezekiel being sent on a mission.He was
even the spirit of God so that he can speak for God and on behalf of
God, which
is what it means to be a prophet. To be,
as it were, the mouthpiece of God.He
was sent to the Israelites who had become rebels, who had turned
against
God.When I was just listening to the
first reading today, a thought came into my mind: the Israelites had
become
rebels, had turned against God; then I thought, “Well, you know, we are
all
blessed here. How can we become rebels?”I thought about it.I
thought, “Well, you all know Los Alamos; it’s known
the world over for science, its discoveries and all this.You can name it.You all know it. But with all this, with all this, our little
intelligence, this little intelligence that we have should not lead us
to be
rebels against God.”Think about that.
We
have little intelligence
that we share and that
might lead us to be rebels, to turn against God.Let
that not be the case with you.I think the
mission for Ezekiel was a tough
one because he was sent to a people who had turned against God.He had to fulfill his purpose and the mandate
to Ezekiel was whether this set of rebels would listen and know that
there was
a prophet among them. What do we learn
from all
this?It is exactly this: that God will
not and
will never be silent.God will always
have his messengers to tell us what is right and what is wrong.Whether we listen to it or not, there will
always be messengers sent by God.This
is what we learn from the mission of Ezekiel, who was sent to a people
to tell
them, whether they listened or not, In the letter to
the
Corinthians, we hear something in
Paul’s makeup, a thorn in the flesh, which says to keep him humble, as
it were,
teaching him that all glory is from God and for God.Now we do not know for certain what this
thorn was but scholars suggest that it was something to do with his
physical
health.Three times Paul asked the Lord
to remove this thorn but the answer that came from God was this: “My
strength
is enough for you.My power is at its
best in weakness.” With all this,
Paul, I would
say, he never gave up. He learned to live
and accept his own
situation. Out of that experience, what
came up?His experience produced what I
would say, an amazing statement. It is a
message for all Christians and it is this: Paul says, “Now I boast of
my
weaknesses because it is when I’m weak that I am strong.”God works through human weakness. What Paul means
is this:
that when he is weak, it is
then that he turns to God for help; it is then that he opens to God and
allows
the power of God to strengthen him.In
other words, Paul is saying that had he never experienced weakness, he
would
never have reached out for help.He
would never have discovered the greatest source of power that comes
from
God. I think members
of AA
(Alcoholics Anonymous), I think
they would agree with what Paul is saying.For them, their key to turning their lives around was admitting
that
they were powerless over alcohol.It was
that, that in itself which gave them that turnaround so that they could
seek
for help from elsewhere. They did that,
and they continue to do that, and if you haven’t, please try that.For then and only then, do they honestly
acknowledge their need for God.They
made that biggest step in their life to open themselves to the help of
God; to
open themselves to that external help and in broaching Christ, Christ
healed
them. This is what Paul
is saying
to us.When trials come our way, when
hardships
threaten us, I think it is at that very moment when we are weak.We don’t know what to do.What should we do?We should not
lose heart.We should look to Christ.It is in those very moments when we need
external
help, when we need the help that comes from God.We
should open ourselves to God and allow Him
to work through us and the change will come about. In the Gospel
today, the
Gospel itself presents us
with Jesus in his own town where he was born and bred.He preached to his own people and what happened?
While they were certainly impressed,
they could not accept him.Where did he
get all this wisdom?Isn’t this the
carpenter, the son of Mary?They could
not accept him. It is here that I am
reminded of the beautiful words that come from the Gospel of John.He says this, “To His own, he came and His
own did not accept him.”Yet in another
passage, John says, “Light came into the world, but people preferred
darkness
to light. . .” Jesus was
rejected.Jesus is still rejected today.The people in his own town, I would say, failed to see Jesus for
who he
is.They could not get beyond their
categories, to go beyond seeing Jesus as a carpenter, a son of man.Going a little bit further than that, this is
what we are asked to do today, to see in Jesus who he really is; to go
beyond
what we have our own categories of Jesus.I think for most of us, you would agree with me that we have put
Jesus
into categories that He should behave in this way and that if he
doesn’t, then
he is not Jesus.We should go beyond
those categories that we have.Otherwise,
if we don’t, we remain being like those people.We are smart enough, I suppose. Now from all
this, what do
we learn?We learn two things.First: Just as his own people rejected Jesus
in his own town, by his own people, we as followers of Christ will be
rejected
also.Let that rejection not stop us
from loving, which is the second aspect of the point.The second point is that we should not let
this rejection deter us from continuing to love just as it did not stop
Jesus
from continuing to do his mission. May God help us.