Friday of
the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Leviticus 23:1.4-11.15-16.27.34b-37; Matthew
13:54-58)
In one of his novels Larry McMurtry tells the story of an
antique collector who buys a precious item from the owners of a second-hand
store. The owners ask a price many times
below the object’s value because they do not know its real worth. In the gospel today the townspeople where
Jesus grew up similarly do not recognize Jesus for who he really is.
The people of Nazareth think that they know Jesus because
they know his family. They cannot
comprehend that he is the long awaited Messiah who comes to save Israel. Even his miraculous cures and his wonderful
teaching do not convince them but just confound them more.
Some of us may likewise be scandalized by the ways that
Jesus dominantly makes himself present today.
He does not come in a grand banquet which we have to pay thousands of
dollars to attend. No, he is present in
the simple hosts and the inexpensive wine that we bring to the altar. His teachings promising eternal life are also
neither complex nor enigmatic. No, they
contain the straightforward message that we are to love God above all and to
love our neighbors as ourselves. We must
be careful not to reject Jesus as his townspeople do in the gospel. Quite the contrary, we must be ever grateful
that he makes himself available to us and to all.
