From the Gospel: On being prophetic
A prophet is only one insofar as he or she is rejected by those to whom one is sent
14th Sunday in ordinary time. Today’s readings: Ezekiel 2:2-5; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6
Sometimes a chance encounter with a person or an unexpected experience can make us get in touch with the core of our being and bring our lived experience to another level.
On a cool December evening in 1955, the monosyllabic word of resistance “No!” uttered by a timid Rosa Parks on a packed bus in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to have her dignity and that of other black people trampled upon, led to a sobering self-awareness of humanity.
Indeed, any moment can be prophetic, just as every encounter could be. If only we would allow ourselves to let go of our preconceived ideas and take the risk of entering into the universe of the other.
Think of the last time you met a person and asked where he or she hailed from, or their profession. Already at first glance we draw conclusions about the person, filling in the blanks with past experiences that colour our vision.
Sometimes, our judgement is spot-on. A person from a particular town or country might have the temperament or attitudes typically associated with that particular place of origin.
Other times, however, we might be completely mistaken. In filtering out what we do not expect in the other person, we fail to appreciate the uniqueness and newness that he or she might bring to our lives. We might even react negatively for not observing features we would otherwise expect in that person.
But precisely such people spur us to re-evaluate our convictions, shedding our old ways of being and prodding us to embrace a more authentic self.
There is a risk that we fail to recognise Christ or pick and choose from him to make him more palatable
This was the experience of the people of Nazareth who, upon listening to Jesus teach, were at once awestruck, but also put off, or at least confused, because they believed they knew him well enough already.
The irony cannot be missed here.
While Jesus’s listeners claimed they knew Jesus, earlier on in the same Gospel he had just revealed that his was a heavenly Father, and that his siblings were not those who shared blood lines, but those who do God’s will.
It turns out that Jesus’s listeners were completely off track about their knowledge of him.
The paradox is that a prophet is only one insofar as he or she is rejected by those to whom one is sent. The words of a prophet who is accepted are blunt and dull.
Jesus’s words are never blunt or dull, but we often render them so. This is beautifully illustrated in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s short story The Grand Inquisitor, in which Jesus revisits Earth after 15 centuries, this time appearing in Seville, Spain. The cardinal grand inquisitor has him arrested, drags him into a dark dungeon and puts against him a string of charges.
The inquisitor accuses Jesus of creating a religion that is too hard to believe in, and a life of discipleship that is almost impossible to abide by, since it demands to give up power, wealth and prestige. This, concludes the inquisitor, is too demanding, so they have taken the mission of “correcting and improving” Christ’s teaching.
The inquisitor relishes in that men finally rejoiced in finding themselves led once again like a herd of cattle, and being delivered of the terrible burden laid upon them by Christ.
There is a risk that lies among us who share too much familiarity with Christ that we fail to recognise him or, like the inquisitor, pick and choose from him to make him more palatable.
For Italian priest and peace activist Ernesto Balducci, “the Christianity we are in is like an immense and unending effort to domesticate Jesus”. He might be onto something.
Every moment is an opportunity for an authentic and life-changing encounter with Christ, lest we end up like the proverbial fish that died in anguish because it kept wanting to see the sea it had been swimming in throughout its life.