14th Sunday of Ordinary time

Ez 2: 2-5;  2 Cor 12: 7-10;       Mk 6: 1-6

"Familiarity breeds contempt." Today's readings are all about envy and rejection. Ezechiel the prophet shows how God continues to send prophets like him to His people. And even although they remain obstinate and stubborn, rejecting God's messengers, his task was still to try and make sure that they would eventually realise that there was a prophet in their midst. While they might reject God's prophet, they could not reject His plan.

Paul faced the same problem: he's only too aware of his own shortcomings, weaknesses and failures. Over and above that, he's given some sort of physical illness - his "thorn in the flesh" - as he puts it, which debilitates him in some way, perhaps just to make sure he keeps his feet on the ground and just rely on God's grace which would over­ shadow his personal weakness, and enable him to use his strengths and his weaknesses as opportunities for God to work in him and through him.

Then, when Jesus Himself arrives back in His home town, His neighbours reject Him and His message, perhaps because they know His relations and His background - the son of a carpenter who's got a bit above Himself!

What about us. Do we prejudge others or refuse to forgive them, not allowing them time and space to repent? How often do we blame others for their failures, in order to divert attention from our own? If Jesus had wanted perfect disciples, both Peter and Paul would have been the last to be chosen, having failed the selection procedures - Peter because of his cowardice, Paul because of his rabid, fanatical beliefs. So there's a warning for us about judging others: Jesus calls us to see the good in others, especially those who appear to have been marginalised as the scapegoats of society. Yet they were the very ones who accepted Jesus as He was, without caring about His background, His family tree or anything else. Many of the faults we see in others, we possess in spades ourselves, and it's often easier to take the heat off ourselves by criticising the Church, friends or neighbours. Speck of dust ... plank! We'll find Jesus in the most unexpected places and people, not necessarily in church, or in holy and apparently very devout people. And that's why we shouldn't ignore others, or simply pass them by without a second glance. It may only be a smile in Asda or Tesco's, a thank you to the bus driver or a nod to our neighbour. Because if Christ is present in us, then, just conceivably, He might be present in all whom we meet as well! Even me!