God’s wise ways

Wednesday
February 01, 2017
4th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Heb.
12:4-7.11-15
Gospel: Mk 6:1–6

Jesus returned to his own country, and his disciples followed him. When the Sabbath came, he began teaching in the synagogue, and most of those who heard him were astonished. They commented, “How did this come to him? What kind of wisdom has been given to him that he also performs such miracles? Who is he but the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offense at him.

And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives and in their own family.” And he could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people by laying his hands on them. Jesus himself was astounded at their unbelief. Jesus then went around the villages teaching.

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

Subjecting God to human categories has led many to regrettable decisions. Look at how the Jews of Nazareth ended up throwing out a Messiah. To them a Messiah was supposed to be extraordinary.

Jesus was far from being one. He was just the boy next door. They were expecting the Messiah to come down from heaven escorted by angels, and with the swiftness of lighting and the roaring might of thunder wipe out the enemies of his chosen people. Contrary to their expectation, He came as an ordinary son of a carpenter. For this “they took offense at him” (Mk. 6:3). As a result they stripped God of power over their lives. “Jesus was not able to perform any miracle in their midst” (Mark 6:5).

Nothing has changed much of the way humans categorize God today. Consider for example how we equate sufferings with God’s absence, and material well being with His presence. According to human categories, God’s presence is irreconcilable with tribulations.

Unfortunately God’s intervention in our lives will always include the possibility of sufferings because he is a father who also “punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons” (Heb. 12:6ff). To those who wish to follow him, he requires no less than self-denial and the taking up of one’s cross.

For these requisites we consider irreconcilable with our human categories as to what God should be, we take offense at him and throw him out of our lives. No wonder God can do very little to help us. The only way he could intervene is to trespass our hearts. But this he won’t do because he is respectful of human freedom. With how we treat God, soon we shall find ourselves without a god, not because ours have abdicated his responsibility but because we strip him of power over our lives. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM.
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