Sunday 7th of July 2024 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ezekiel 2:2-5/ Psalm 122(123)/ 2 Corinthians 12:7-10/ Mark 6:1-6

It is when I am weak that I am strong. This statement from Saint Paul does not seem to make sense. How can we be strong when we are weak? We sometimes think we are strong and can take on the world on our own. All the challenges of life are seen as opportunities to prove our strength and resilience. Paul acknowledges that he has weaknesses and even admits to having a particular weakness, ‘a thorn in the flesh’ that he must battle with. Instead of giving in to this weakness Paul trusts in God to help him work through it. With the help of God Paul becomes strong in the face of his weakness and temptations. Paul uses his weaknesses as a reminder not to become proud over the things he achieves always remembering that it is not him achieving these things but God working through him.

In the first reading Ezekiel is called to be a prophet to a people who do not want to hear the message from God. The important point from this reading is that the people should know that there is a prophet among them whether they want to hear the message or not. God wants his message proclaimed even to a ‘defiant and obstinate’ people and then it will be their choice to accept it or not.

In the Gospel passage Jesus also comes up against resistance when he visits his home town. The people who knew Jesus, knew where he came from, knew his mother and the brothers and sisters of the community, were astonished when they heard him preaching and saw his miracles. This was not enough because they could not accept this all coming from someone from their own community. Despite the impact of the teaching and miracles Jesus was rejected by his own people because they thought they knew who he was, and it was simply not a good enough background for him to have any credibility with them. Due to their lack of faith Jesus could work no miracles there although, intriguingly, we are told ‘he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them’ which sounds miraculous to me.

The people heard Jesus and saw his miracles, they believed what they saw but questioned it because they thought they knew who Jesus was. He was one of them, no better, no worse, but nothing special. It was their lack of faith that stopped the people seeing Jeus for who he is. Faith means putting our whole trust in God and abandoning the niggling doubts that are so prevalent in the human condition. Seeing things through the eyes of faith will allow us to appreciate Jesus for who he is, the redeemer, our saviour, the second person of the Holy Trinity, God who became human, the human who is God. In faith we can see far beyond the human who was born into poverty and brought up in an obscure simple town long ago to the man who is God. God who was born, lived, and died as one of us so that he could lead the way for us into our heavenly existence.

In baptism we are called to share with Jesus his ministry as priest, prophet, and king. Being a prophet is not about predicting the future but announcing the will of God to the people around. This is what we are called to do. Ezekiel found resistance to his message and so will we. We also live among a ‘defiant and obstinate’ people who do not generally want to hear God’s message of how to live. The important thing for us is that people recognise us as prophets in their midst even if they do not want to hear the message we have from God.

Our task of being a prophet in our time is challenging. We are weakened by all the temptations around us. Like Paul we can use these temptations to seek the help of God and in so doing become strong in the face of these human failings. This strength is not of our own making but comes from God if we have faith, turn to him and put ourselves at his mercy. It is then that from our weakness we will become strong.

God Bless Brendan