Jesus rejected by town mates

MANILA, Philippines – There was once a professor in theology at a Catholic university. On his first day, he asked the students to write down what their notion of Jesus was.

While going over the papers later, the professor was amused by the many curious answers. There was one that particularly caught his attention. The student wrote: “Jesus was a great P-R-O-F-I-T. He meant “prophet.” It wasn’t surprising because when the teacher checked the course he was taking, it was Business Administration!

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The gospel of this 14th Sunday talks of a prophet (God’s spokesman). When Jesus returned to His hometown and taught in the synagogue, His townmates had wrong notion about Him, much like that student in the theology class. “How can He claim to be a Teacher and Prophet when we know His relatives?” they questioned. “Isn’t He the carpenter’s Son? Where did He get all His knowledge?” (Mk 6:2).

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Sensing His audience’s negative attitude, Jesus said: “No prophet is accepted in his own country” (6:4). The Scripture relates further, “He could work no miracles there. He was astonished by their lack of faith” (6:6).

The attitude of Christ’s Jewish townmates could be ours, too. We may not reject Jesus outright since Filipinos are generally religious and prayerful. But our Mass going and prayers can become so routinary and mechanical that we don’t feel their meaning anymore.

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If you want to appreciate God’s Word and the Mass, one way is to take extra effort to do so. This is what Bible-reading groups in Biblia-rasal do. Not content with just being Sunday Mass goers, they seek to know the will of God from the Scriptures and find concrete ways to apply it in their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

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Another lesson of this Sunday’s gospel concerns relationship with one another. Jesus’ townmates could not accept Him because He was too familiar to them. Remember the old dictum, “Familiarity breeds contempt”?

Do we tend to take people for granted just because we meet them day in, day out? Do we recognize their worth and positive qualities or do we see only what’s negative in them? How often do we hear about married couples who’re so thoughtful and caring when they’re newly married. But as time goes by, those qualities fade away.

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People joke that when a couple is newly married, the word ASAWA (spouse) is still complete. But as the years pass, the letters disappear one by one. After a couple of years, the A vanishes and what have you? “Sawa,” (fed up). Then after a couple more years, the S disappears and you have “Awa” (pity), and after some more years, the A fades off, too; what remains? “Wa”! (no more) – no more love or worse, no more spouse!

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Very often we realize the goodness of family members and relatives only when they pass away. That’s when we extol their qualities as in some necrological services!

The gospel message teaches that we must have faith to transcend the ordinariness of the carpenter’s Son from Nazareth. Likewise, we need faith to see beyond the undesirable traits of people we live or work with. Doing that is not always easy, but that’s the mark of a genuine follower of Christ.

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FAMILY TV MASS – is aired on IBC 13 at 7 a.m. every Sunday and on GMA Pinoy TV International. Sponsor: CARDINAL SANTOS MEDICAL CENTER, San Juan City. Presider: Fr. Bel San Luis, SVD.

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For Mass intentions, e.g. sick, dead, call Brian at Christ the King Seminary (cf. tel. directory) or e-mail: familytvmass@yahoo.com.

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