WEDNESDAY HOMILY FOR 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME / YEAR B

WEDNESDAY HOMILY FOR 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME / YEAR B

THEME: HOMECOMING

BY: DEACON BILL FRERE

Gospel – Mark 6:1-6
Synagogue Church, Nazareth

As most of you know, I spent all of high school and most of college in the seminary. What you may not know is that it was not as simple as a daily ride on the bus to school and then home for dinner and homework. We lived at the seminary for the school year, only returning home for the summer. Since it was down in Virginia, about 180 miles from home, even family visits were extremely limited.

After I graduated from high school and returned home for the summer, I decided to visit my former classmates and attend their high school graduation. Bad decision! It was as if I was invisible at best, still an 8th grader at worst. My former classmates, my former friends, looked at me and saw me as I used to be and not as I had grown to be. It was difficult to say the least. They saw what they wanted to see and not who I really was. They didn’t allow for a person to change, to grow, to mature! And that was hard to accept.

We have all had moments when we returned ‘home’ and were greeted by family or friends we haven’t seen in many years. And it’s as if you never grew up; you were still that ‘little kid’. And any effort to show how you have changed might have been met with ‘well, isn’t that nice.’

Jesus travels home to Nazareth in today’s Gospel and it does not go well. He begins to preach in His home synagogue and it goes from bad to worse. He is met with narrow-mindedness and preconceived notions of who He is. They look at Him the way He was and not who He is! People have already made up their minds about who He is and they are too stubborn to change their perception. They thought they knew Jesus and they just couldn’t move beyond that outdated knowledge. Unwilling to change, they are also resistant to faith! They have closed their minds and hearts to the Good News. Faith requires an open mind and an open heart, a willingness to listen and learn!

Jesus must have known this could have happened when He returned home. He knew there was a real chance of rejection and closed minds. And yet He still came; He still preached; He still hoped! Isn’t the same true for all of us? Somehow somewhere we encounter Jesus every day. And every day Jesus hopes that we will open our minds and our hearts to His message, to His healing touch!

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