His Social Status was His ‘Sin’

Rev. Marcel Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Who are the people that we sometimes tend to ignore or reject? Who are the people that we easily pass by pretending they don’t exist? We avoid them, not because they will cause us any harm, but because they irritate us.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus went home to his own people. But before he made this journey, he had expelled unclean spirits from the possessed, healed a woman who had suffered hemorrhages for 12 years, and raised the daughter of a Synagogue official, Jairus from death. His fame and popularity had spread. His message was gaining ground and multitudes of people were flocking to him. But when Jesus came to his hometown, Nazareth, the reception he got was different. The response he got from the people who had known him since boyhood was cold and hostile. As he taught in their Synagogue on a sabbath day, his teaching was received not with pleasant amazement but with contempt. “They took offense at him.” They were astonished, scandalized and upset that a man who came from such an impoverished, low-life background like him could speak with such authority and profundity. They knew Jesus’ humble and lowly beginnings; they knew his profession, his mother, and his relatives: “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary…”  And in contempt, they asked: “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!” 

Jesus was in his hometown’s synagogue proclaiming the Kingdom of God, the presence of God among his people but his people couldn’t hear or see him. To them, he was simply an unexceptional carpenter and the impecunious son of Mary who doesn’t worth listening to. Jesus wasn’t born in a noble family. He wasn’t born with a silver-spoon in his mouth. His earthly father, Joseph was poor and obviously died a poor man. His mother Mary didn’t have much. But Jesus had a job. Even though his job was ridiculed, he was not jobless. After the death of Joseph, Jesus inherited his carpentry workshop, worked hard, earned a living and supported Mary. He was as a matter of fact a handyman who could build a wall, mend a roof, repair a gate, fix a furniture and construct a new floor or repair an old one. Unfortunately, his folks despised him for being an ordinary hard working man. Jesus was not a Wall-street man but a Main-street man. He was a man of the people, a layman, a common man, a handyman who could do anything to help people and support his mother. He was rejected and resisted  due to his social status. Simply put, his status was his sin. But that ordinary man of Nazareth, rejected by Nazarenes, held in contempt by Nazarenes, today is the center of history.

From Jesus, we learn that it is not only the moneybags that can make a difference in the world. It is not only the intellectually gifted people that can make a difference in our society. It is not only those who sit on the exalted seats of power and who walk on the corridors of power that can make a difference in our community. From Jesus we learn that regardless of status, fame, position in life, degrees acquired, you can make a difference by the witness of your life.

The saddest words in this Gospel is: “So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them” (Mark 6:5). Why? They lacked the faith needed to receive from God. The atmosphere wasn’t right. The work of God can hardly be done in an atmosphere of religious coldness and indifference. The most power packed and spirit-filled message of salvation can fall lifeless in an environment of coldness and scorn towards God and what pertains to God. To those he healed, Jesus never said: “Your faithlessness has saved you” or “Your religious coldness and indifference have saved you.” It has always been: “Your faith has saved you.” Great things happen to people of great faith. Great things happen to hearts and lives that are open to receive the Lord. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Because he was rejected by his own people, Jesus formed a new family. This family began with the people whom we have been hearing about- the disciples, those who struggle, the commoners, the sick, the woman with hemorrhages, Jairus and his little girl, folks seeking for salvation etc. By baptism, we have become part of this family too. This family is not based on blood, or race, or origin, but on faith. I conclude this reflection with a question: “Is the Lord going to do something great, something mighty, something new among us, or is he going to be amazed by our lack of faith in him and in each other?”