Commentary
Sunday, 7/8/2018, Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Heed or Resist
First Reading Commentary: Ezekiel 2: 2-5
What are we to make of people who do not pay attention to the Word of God? No matter how God chooses to speak to us and no matter how many times God tries to get through to us, there are those of us who will not listen.
This is nothing new. It began with Adam and Eve when they ate the forbidden fruit. Blessed are we because God does not give up on us. God created us and loves us too much to do that. That’s not new either. The promise made by God in Genesis 3:15 and the fulfillment of that promise with Mary and Jesus is proof that God made the commitment to not give up on us right from the beginning. The question is: do we heed God’s Word or do we resist?
Today, the LORD sends Ezekiel to the Israelites who were rebellious and revolted against the LORD’s Word. Ezekiel is addressed by the LORD as the Son of man. We know that the Son of man is Christ so why does the LORD address Ezekiel this way?
During the time of Ezekiel, the term “son of man” simply meant: man. But the term also puts emphasis on the fact that all of us come into this life as the son or daughter of a man. None of us come into this life in a divine state as Christ did who was one hundred percent man as well as one hundred percent divine (God).
But this is also a prophecy of the coming of Christ. It is the Son who the Father sent to this rebellious world. We are like the Israelites in that we have obstinate hearts and revolt against God with our sins.
This prophecy is all about the Father making it very clear that when the Son came, the world would know that He was here. The Father was also making it clear that He knew that some people would follow the Son and some people would not.
No one disputes the fact that Jesus was here. Everyone recognizes the fact that Jesus was a great prophet as it is written in Ezekiel’s prophecy today. But not everyone accepts the divinity of Christ and all of us still sin.
We are all good people no matter what our religion and no matter what our level of faith may be. This is true because God created us in His image. But we are constantly challenged by the devil and in the weakness of our humanity, we fall victim to sin and resist God’s Word even though we may try our best not to.
It is because God wants nothing more than to have us be with Him in His kingdom that He is all merciful and all forgiving and that is why He sent the Son of Man to rescue us. Our mission is to heed God’s Word and to do our best to resist the evil one. To do this, we must keep the faith and share our faith. We must also pray and exercise the Sacraments, most especially, we must go to Confession and partake in the Eucharist.
Weakness Begets Strength
Second Reading Commentary: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
“He must increase; I must decrease.” These were the words of John the Baptist in John 3:30 as he was making reference to Jesus. The same is true for us. If we do not decrease so that God can increase within us, we will not be able to embrace and follow today’s message from Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians. That message is that for the sake of Christ, we must be weak in order to be strong. Only then, can the power of Christ’s Spirit dwell within us.
No matter how hard we try to live by God’s Word, we find ourselves falling into sin. That is because the devil uses all of God’s creations to con us into living in the flesh and not in the Spirit. Everything that God created is good but the devil uses that good to coerce us into sinful ways.
In my opinion, greed and pride are the two worst deadly sins. In today’s world, the devil has big fun with us by filling our hearts with those two deadly sins. In our capitalistic society, no matter how much we have, we always want more. Too many of us believe that we are better than those who do not share our heritage or culture or practice our religion. Prejudice and racism exist because of the deadly sin of pride.
These are the kinds of things that Paul was talking about when he said that he had been given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan sent to beat him. Sometimes we allow ourselves to be an angel of Satan sent to beat someone else without even realizing that we are.
There are those who will take objection to what I just said but if you have ever suggested to someone that they commit an act which is wrong; you are guilty. If you have ever looked down on someone else for any reason; you are guilty. If you have ever wanted to have more for yourself at the expense of others; you are guilty. If you have ever lied, cheated or broken the Second Greatest Commandment in any way; you are guilty. Sadly, we all have because we all sin.
Paul tells us that he asked the Lord three times to take that suffering away from him but the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” In other words, the grace of God can and will overcome everything evil within us and around us. All we have to do is receive God’s grace in faith and allow it to work.
So, Paul said that he would rather boast of his weakness so that the power of Christ could dwell within him for when he is weak, then he is strong. Paul was giving testimony to the fact that when we admit to our weaknesses and confess our sins with sincere remorse, God graces us with His mercy and forgiveness and we become strong.
Listen to Each Other and to the Lord
Gospel Commentary: Mark 6:1-6
Today's gospel from Mark is his account of Jesus being rejected in Nazareth. Luke also accounts for this event in his gospel, Luke 4:16-30, giving us more detail of what took place while Mark focuses on the rejection itself. This commentary is based on both gospels.
Luke tells us that in a synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah which began, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” He sat down and everyone looked intently at Him and Jesus said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus had just proclaimed His identity as the Son of Man to the people in Nazareth although they did believe Him. They were amazed and asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” The people in Nazareth saw Jesus as a carpenter’s son and not as a scholar, teacher or rabbi. They certainly did not think of Jesus as a prophet, let alone, the Son of Man or the Messiah.
This was still very early in Jesus’ ministry so one could argue that the people needed more than this to believe. Whether you make that argument or not, the fact is that the people of Nazareth had hard hearts and chose not to listen. None of us can say that we need more proof because it is all recorded in the gospels. We have no excuse. We have the gospels and gift of faith and we should use it.
According to Luke, Jesus said, “Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum…Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” Here, Jesus was saying, “You should know better” because you know of the great works that occurred in Capernaum and that the people of Capernaum have accepted Me but you, My own people; reject Me.
Mark tells us that Jesus said, "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house." The point that Jesus was making in both gospels is that the whole world can listen to what we have to say and know that we are right but those who are close to us will not listen because they will have closed ears and closed minds. They know us well enough to know our faults and weaknesses and they prejudge us because of them.
We have all experienced times when those who know us or are close to us do not want to listen to what we have to say. They do not believe that we know what we are talking about and no matter how correct we may be or how much proof we may give; we just as well talk to the wall.
Luke tells us that Jesus reminded the people of Elijah being sent to the widow in Zarephath, 1 Kings 17:17-24, and Elisha cleansing Naaman the Syrian, 2 Kings 5:1-15. When the people heard this, they became furious, drove Him out of town and wanted to throw Him off of a hill but Jesus got away.
Have you ever been in the position of trying to help a friend or family member only to be greeted with hostility for your efforts? If you are a parent of a child who is in a bad relationship and you have failed, in spite of all of your best efforts, to get them to understand that they need to get out of that relationship; you have been there and know exactly what I am talking about.
This is the devil at work bringing on chaos by influencing us to be at odds with each other including those who are trying to look out for us. He does it on every level and in every aspect of our lives. I see this as the reason why there are so many denominations of Christianity. There are people who declare that they are Christian and they mean it when they say it but they still reject certain things that Jesus said or did.
Everything that Jesus said or did had a purpose and comes with a message. Today’s message is: keep an open mind, be willing to listen to each other and most especially, listen to the Lord when He speaks. I have said this before, “You never know when, where, how or through whom the Lord will speak to you.” We must not allow the devil to weaken our faith. We must pray instead that God will strengthen us with His Spirit so that our minds are always open.
