Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Sunday, July 7, 2024

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

First Reading: Ezekiel 2:2-5

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 123

Second Reading: 2 Cor 12: 7-10

Gospel: Mark 6:1-6

In a world that is becoming more and more secular and outright anti-gospel, and anti-God, standing up for God and preaching the gospel is also becoming more and more unpopular and challenging, and taking up this task is to risk rejection and sometimes persecution. As men and women called to witness to the gospel in our modern world, the liturgy today invites us to draw lessons from the experience of Ezekiel in the first reading and our Lord himself in the gospel.

In the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, while sending Ezekiel to his people, God warns Ezekiel that they are a “rebellious house” who have rebelled against me. They are “hard of face and obstinate of heart.” But he is to speak the Word of God to them, nonetheless. Ezekiel announced the Babylonian exile, but the people did not listen to him. In 597 BC king Nebuchadnezzar II, besieged and ransacked Jerusalem, leading to the exile of many Judeans, including Ezekiel himself. While in exile, he saw the vision of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, but the people will not listen until it came to pass. The non-reception of the words of a prophet is a cause of great pain and frustration for the prophet. It can make him feel contempt and scorn. But like the Psalmist, the prophet must have his eyes fixed on the Lord for mercy, to save him from the mockery of the arrogant and the contempt of the proud.

The mandate to proclaim God’s message to a rebellious people reminds us of the parable of the seed Sower who scatters the seeds even in places where there is no possibility of producing. It also reminds us of God’s character not to forsake anyone no matter how hardened they maybe. Sometimes we are persuaded that there is no need to speak the word of God because we believe they will not listen. The first reading teaches us that fidelity to God’s word is more important than its reception or rejection. Do not worry if they will listen or not, preach the word anyways so that they will know that a prophet has been among them.

In the gospel we find that not even our Lord Jesus is immune from rejection. Having preached in the villages around Galilee and Capernaum which is only a few miles away from Nazareth, his fame reached Nazareth ahead of him. They had heard how he taught with authority and worked many miracles in other places. Returning to Nazareth, on the sabbath, he made his way to the synagogue and the synagogue officials let him preach. When he preached, many who heard him were astonished. But then, doubt and skepticism occasioned by their familiarity with him set in. They know about his poor family background and know that he is not trained by any Rabbi. Mark tells us, “And they took offence at him.” 

Their pride and familiarity with Jesus led to their refusal to accept that in him, God has visited his people. How often does it happen to us that our pride and familiarity prevents us from recognizing the presence and operation of God in our neighbor, in unlikely places and events and in the poor among us? The people of Nazareth have their fixed ideas of the Messiah and the prophet, and Jesus did not quite fit it. We must adopt an attitude of humility and openness. A mind that is not humble and open to change becomes closed to growth and to the graces that God wants to give us even in unlikely places. Openness to the truth requires that we do away with our preconceived ideas which can blind us to the truth and to God’s presence and his work among us.

In the second reading, St. Paul speaks about ‘a thorn in his flesh’ which kept him humble and reliant on God’s grace. Despite his cry to God to take this thorn away from him, God did not take it away from him. Rather He gave him the grace sufficient to endure it. Paul realizes that God’s power is made manifest in his weakness. Our own weakness or thorn may be our fear of rejection, insults, hardships, and persecution. Like Paul, our weaknesses should keep us humble and reliant on God whose grace is sufficient. And like Ezekiel and Jesus, we must not be fazed in the face of rejection; fidelity to the word of God is more important to its reception.

Happy Sunday,

Rev. Fr. Chidi Onwuka, m.ss.cc.