Daily Reflections - January 21, 2012

THE SPIRITUAL REVOLUTIONARY

One of the most amazing aspects of the ministry of Jesus was the way the Jews failed to recognize that He was the Messiah that all had been waiting for. Perhaps even more amazingly, we hear today in the Gospel that Jesus’ own relatives thought He was out of His mind. I wonder how they came to that conclusion, but then, it is very easy in hindsight to understand the ministry of Jesus. It would have been much more difficult to do so in the heat of the moment.
It may help us to suspend our own faith for a bit and try to put ourselves in the shoes of those who first heard the Gospel as it was proclaimed by Jesus. There is no doubt that I would have struggled to understand and accept what Jesus was saying, as it was not supported by the teaching of the various rabbis at the time. I often come to the conclusion that this is why the ministry of Jesus had to be accompanied by so many miracles and signs. They were necessary in order to demonstrate that Jesus spoke with authority — namely, the voice of God.
It is easy to see how radical Jesus’ message must have been to the ordinary believer of His time. Thus, the difficulty for the Gospel to be established among the Jews. There would not have been the same apprehension or hesitation among Gentile believers as they do not carry the same centuries-old traditions and understandings that the Jews had developed. It was all new to the Gentiles. Once this fact was overcome, virtually anything Jesus, or later on His disciples, say would be far more readily acceptable to their unformed and unbiased minds and hearts.
If we allow our faith to guide our understanding of Jesus’ words, we will be led to a deeper appreciation of how significant and radical they would have been to the Jews of Jesus’ time. Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

REFLECTION QUESTION: Do you allow prejudices to color the way you interpret the Scriptures? Try reading the Bible from the point of view of a Jew of Jesus’ time.

Holy Spirit, help me to open my mind and my heart to the truth of the Gospel and to apply these truths in my daily life with fidelity and obedience to Your will.