July 8, 2018: 14th Sunday Ordinary B
July 8, 2018: 14th Sunday Ordinary B
Let me ask you a question in three different ways. Are you a person who is more likely or less likely to give someone the benefit of the doubt? Are you more likely to believe something good about someone, rather than something bad? If someone does something strange or wrong, are you more likely to assume that the person had a good intention or assume that the person is a bad person? Consider what happened to my sister a few days ago in a refrigerator magnet shop in the city of Prague, Czechoslovakia. My dad wanted to bring refrigerator magnets for his co-workers as souvenir gifts, so he and my sister entered a shop and my sister tried to pick one that he liked. As she took off several magnets from the display wall to show to my dad, the shop owner got furious and began to shout at her to get out. The owner’s angry response certainly did not correspond to my sister’s actions. As we left the shop bewildered, we tried to understand the situation. We surmised that perhaps he had bad experiences with Korean tourists in his shop. Annually around 100,000 to 200,000 South Korean tourists visit Prague, and I can attest that Korean tourists can be troublesome. I personally know of one Korean living in Sorrento and another one living in Donaldsonville who are nothing but trouble; and both are Catholic priests!
What happened to Jesus in his hometown of Nazareth is an example of people not going beyond their prejudice and narrow-mindedness. The people of Nazareth had a hard time accepting Jesus as a prophet and as a miracle worker because they could not understand how the familiar son of Mary and Joseph whom they watched grow as an ordinary boy could be an extraordinary prophet for God, let alone the Son of God. Because they could not explain how an ordinary citizen from Nazareth could have such power and wisdom, they stopped listening to him and ridiculed him. The people of Nazareth did what all people do when they don’t understand someone; they resort to ridiculing the person. Instead of referring to him as son of Joseph, as was the custom of the Jewish culture, they called him “the son of Mary” to imply that Jesus was born of a harlot. Their rejection of Jesus was to a degree that Jesus did not perform many miracles. How the lives of people in Nazareth could have changed if only they had believed! They heard the truth but still turned a deaf ear. Even today Jesus calls his people to repent their lives, believe the Gospel, and be saved. Yet when people reject the truth of the Gospel, the Lord will call them no more and people will be left to their own choices. Paul was an example of those that heeded Jesus’ call to change their lives.
St. Paul regretted demonizing Christians as heretics and repented of his role in killing numerous Christians. Perhaps the “thorn” that Paul asked the Lord to remove from him three times was the memory and guilty conscience of murdering many innocent lives in the name of God. We too have regretful memory of how we judged and treated others in our weak character. What grace from God we would have received if we but gave the benefit of the doubt to others?
Have we become too familiar with the gospel such that we no longer feel challenged by Jesus to change our ways--that is to love as he loved by bearing, hoping, and enduring with love persons and events we encounter everyday? Have we become too familiar with Jesus on the cross that we no longer shed tears for our sins for which he died on the cross? St. Paul wrote to the Corinthian community that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13:7) This was the hard lesson that Paul learned through trials and errors of lack of faith and love. Like St. Paul, we too can correct our past mistakes by making conscientious choices every day to recognize the best in others and to see their good intentions.
We should spend a few moments this week reflecting on the way we judge and treat people around us, including those who don’t seem to meet our standards. Our Lord invites his disciples to let go of familiar stereotypical attitudes about persons of different race, culture, language, and background. We ask Our Lord to help us to look upon our neighbor with the eyes of Christ who comes to heal and restore us.
Let me ask you a question in three different ways. Are you a person who is more likely or less likely to give someone the benefit of the doubt? Are you more likely to believe something good about someone, rather than something bad? If someone does something strange or wrong, are you more likely to assume that the person had a good intention or assume that the person is a bad person? Consider what happened to my sister a few days ago in a refrigerator magnet shop in the city of Prague, Czechoslovakia. My dad wanted to bring refrigerator magnets for his co-workers as souvenir gifts, so he and my sister entered a shop and my sister tried to pick one that he liked. As she took off several magnets from the display wall to show to my dad, the shop owner got furious and began to shout at her to get out. The owner’s angry response certainly did not correspond to my sister’s actions. As we left the shop bewildered, we tried to understand the situation. We surmised that perhaps he had bad experiences with Korean tourists in his shop. Annually around 100,000 to 200,000 South Korean tourists visit Prague, and I can attest that Korean tourists can be troublesome. I personally know of one Korean living in Sorrento and another one living in Donaldsonville who are nothing but trouble; and both are Catholic priests!
St. Paul regretted demonizing Christians as heretics and repented of his role in killing numerous Christians. Perhaps the “thorn” that Paul asked the Lord to remove from him three times was the memory and guilty conscience of murdering many innocent lives in the name of God. We too have regretful memory of how we judged and treated others in our weak character. What grace from God we would have received if we but gave the benefit of the doubt to others?
Have we become too familiar with the gospel such that we no longer feel challenged by Jesus to change our ways--that is to love as he loved by bearing, hoping, and enduring with love persons and events we encounter everyday? Have we become too familiar with Jesus on the cross that we no longer shed tears for our sins for which he died on the cross? St. Paul wrote to the Corinthian community that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13:7) This was the hard lesson that Paul learned through trials and errors of lack of faith and love. Like St. Paul, we too can correct our past mistakes by making conscientious choices every day to recognize the best in others and to see their good intentions.
We should spend a few moments this week reflecting on the way we judge and treat people around us, including those who don’t seem to meet our standards. Our Lord invites his disciples to let go of familiar stereotypical attitudes about persons of different race, culture, language, and background. We ask Our Lord to help us to look upon our neighbor with the eyes of Christ who comes to heal and restore us.
