IN THE ORDINARY

JULY 7, 2024

It’s easy to think you know people.
Then they can surprise you.
We can find ourselves making opinions and judgements easily on people on colour, race or age.
Or we know them for a long time and then something happens like a marriage or a death and we see another side to them.

 

We think the same even about Jesus – was Jesus a carpenter? No! He could work in wood, metal or stone! So immediately we are challenged by this gospel like they were. Here was the ordinary man, going every week to work in Sepphoris, a few kms from his home, now taking on the role of preacher and prophet. Nothing divine about that – or maybe it’s one of the most divine things we can do! Work and family bring us close to God who is working all the time and who is loving all the time.

How might you see God today – creation, love, silence, care? A new baby in the family – God’s creation of new life with us, or someone who is very ill but in weakness of the body is also finding peace in the prospect of heaven….that is God at work. God is around in the depth moments of life.

What does this gospel make of Jesus? He makes sense of our lives with us and for us, teaching and healing with compassion and love. We do not know him fully, we don’t know all he said, but live by the echo of his words.

Think over yesterday – what gave you a lift in the heart,
a sense of peace, the presence of God.
Lord, I thank you for the wonder of us all!

Fr Donal Neary, S.J.