FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
5 JULY 2015
The job of a prophet is never easy. God called Ezekiel to speak the truth to his
people in exile in Babylon. He had to
tell them the reason why they were in captivity. They had rebelled against the Covenant and
now were paying the consequences. They
certainly did not want to hear this harsh truth. But, in time, they learned that facing the
truth would bring them to repent and accept God’s gracious mercy, returning
them to their homeland and rebuilding their lives.
Jesus has a similar experience when
he comes home. His reputation has
preceded him, and people had heard of the miracles and healings he had worked. They are astonished when he gets up in the
synagogue and gives them his amazing wisdom.
But they cannot believe, because he is too ordinary. They had grown up with him. He had no special training and was an
ordinary laborer. He had broken ties
with his human family and had formed a new family of disciples who traveled
with him. In seeing his humanity so
fully, they cannot recognize his divinity.
They cannot believe that he is the living Word of God.
We have a similar problem in this
family which is the Church. We clearly
see the humanity of the Church. In the
last fifty years, our Church has gone through many changes. It is easy to walk away when those changes
make us uncomfortable. We can divide
ourselves into certain categories, calling ourselves conservatives or liberals,
digging in our heels to avoid those with whom we disagree. We can change parishes, because we do not get
along with the new priest or do not agree with the decisions of crazy pastors
like me. The scandals of the past decade
have shaken the faith of others. In
seeing the very human face of the Church, we can become like those people of
Jesus’ hometown. We have problems
recognizing the divinity behind the very human traits of our Church.
When babies are baptized, they are
anointed with Chrism, signifying that they have become priests, kings, and
prophets. As prophets, we are called to
recognize the truth and speak it. We do
that best by remaining faithful to God’s presence in our Church and trusting
that the Lord continues to work in our midst, even when we might be baffled by
the very human weaknesses of our Church.
We depend on God’s grace to remain faithful and be open to the miracles
which the Lord continues to work in our midst.
Saint Paul can be very helpful in
learning how to be a good prophet. Saint
Paul could easily brag about his accomplishments. Scripture scholars estimate that he traveled
15,000 miles to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul was responsible for taking a movement
within Judaism and making Christianity a worldwide religion. But, instead of bragging about his many
accomplishments, he boasts about his weakness.
He talks about having a thorn in the flesh. We do not know what that thorn was. It could have been something about his
personal appearance. It could have been
an annoying quality that he hated about himself. It could have been some habit that he could
not break. Whatever it was, he prayed
that God would remove his thorn, just as Jesus had prayed three times in the
Garden of Gethsemane that his Father would remove the cross. In accepting his thorn, Paul learned the
power of God’s grace. In accepting his
weakness, he learned that he had to depend on God’s grace. It was God’s grace working through him and
not his own gifts that allowed him to be such an effective prophet.
Each one of us has our own thorn in
the flesh. There is some kind of defect
that we cannot change and that drives us crazy.
When I can honestly admit my thorn, then I can more easily look beyond
the very human qualities of the Church and allow God’s grace to open our eyes
to his presence. God’s grace is
sufficient for me, as it is with the Church he has established.
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