Jesus accepted or rejected?
“When his relatives heard of this, they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” This short sentence from the Gospel proves that Jesus was the most ordinary man in his family life. He did not, as the various apocrypha suggests, do any miracles in the family home, and if so, so discreetly that no one knew about them. Hence, here, the surprise and suspicion of madness.
In our view of Jesus, we immediately see God in him. Indeed, after resurrection and sending the Holy Spirit, Jesus is Lord. However, during his earthly life, he was a Man and he consistently wanted to be. He did not want any lovely ostentation. When he referred to a true testimony, he was speaking only of his obedience to the Father and of doing what pleased Him. Therefore, he referred to the conscience of each listener. In conscience, anyone can recognize whether someone's message is true or false.
From the very beginning of his public activity, Jesus arouses emotions and is a controversial figure. By teaching and performing miracles, he forces people to ask themselves the question: who is He? (cf. Mk 4:41). And it does not make it any easier for them to find the answer to this question. He avoids overt declarations about his identity as the Son of God and the mission of the Messiah. People have to decide for themselves whether they want to believe in Him based on His teachings and actions or not. The Gospel of St. Mark shows how Jesus manifests himself to three different groups or categories of persons and how he is rejected by two of them.
The first group are his "close" members of the broadly understood family, which in that culture created a strong, natural bond. Well, those "own" who love him very much and consider him "their" turn out to be against him, do not know him and do not listen to him. Yes, they are fascinated - like everyone else - with His miracles, but they do not understand what he is saying, so they say, " He is out of his mind!" Jesus attributes to himself the power to forgive sins, which is God's prerogative (cf. Mk 2:7), breaks religious customs and claims to be "Lord of the Sabbath" (cf. Mk 2:28). It would be better if he healed but not taught. They know him too well to take his teaching seriously (cf. Mk 6: 2-3), and as the atmosphere of scandal spreads around him more and more, they feel obliged to incapacitate him and "bring him to order."
The second group are representatives of various group of Judaism. Jesus' first meetings with them were not successful and turned into a series of conflicts over keeping the Law. Rabbis, Pharisees, and even the disciples of John the Baptist and Herod's followers do not love Jesus; they hate him. Unlike the relatives of Nazareth, they understand very well what Jesus means when he says, "The Son of Man has the power to absolve on earth." In their eyes, he is a blasphemer, turning upside down the religion they are guardians of and destroying the image of God they have established. Therefore, they properly "shape" the image of Jesus in the eyes of the public ("He has an unclean spirit! - Mk 3:30), and in their hearts they swear to Him to die (cf. Mk 3: 6).
What is the conclusion for us? It is not enough to be a religious person to enter the kingdom of God. Blood ties and human, natural attachment is not enough either to really "be with Jesus".
The third category of people referred to by St.Mark, are simple people who have been attracted by the beauty of his Gospel and who have experienced first-hand that his word works, that it brings them healing and deliverance. They adhered to him by faith and became his disciples - Jesus' new, spiritual family. It was in their name that Peter made the confession of faith to Jesus: “You are the Messiah.” (cf. Mk 8:29).
“Jesus came with his disciples into the house” (cf. Mk 3:20). Jesus gathers them together in the house, which is a symbol of the Church, a place of relationship and communion, where our heartfelt conversation with him takes place. By being with Jesus, we become brothers and sisters, ready to give ourselves to each other in freedom and love. Called to "be at home with Jesus," we can gradually learn to discern the difference between what he teaches us and what is in our heads and change - not without difficulty - our way of thinking from human to God (cf. Mk 8:33; 9:33-41). This process is called conversion. Blessed are those who see the need for such a conversion. They are on the right track.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george
January 22 - The Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children – a Reflection
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal have designated January 22 as “a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion.”Life is at the heart of the gospel – a beautiful gift from God. When that gift is destroyed rather than treasured, a violent act is committed not just against God, but all humanity. As Saint John Paul II remarked: “The Gospel of God’s love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person, and the Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel.”
The Church’s Call to Defend Life
Each and every human being is created in the image of God and possesses inherent dignity and value. As the Scriptures tell us: God created mankind in his image; "in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:26-27) The Church has a particular duty to care for each and every individual – born and unborn. Saint John Paul II observed: Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of the Word of God who was made flesh (cf. John 1:14), is entrusted to the maternal care of the Church. Therefore, every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church’s very heart; it cannot but affect her at the core of her faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God and engage her in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of life in all the world and to every creature (cf. Mark 16:15).
On this day, we commit ourselves in prayer to the legal protection of the inherent dignity of each person, born and unborn.
The Moral Imperative to Defend the Vulnerable and Uphold the Family
Violating the right to life rejects the inherent value and dignity of the human person at a time when he or she is most defenseless and vulnerable. The mother’s womb, which should be the safest place in the world for a child, becomes a site of violence in this cruel infraction against the family. Saint John Paul II remarked: “Such attacks strike human life at the time of its greatest frailty, when it lacks any means of self-defense. Even more serious is the fact that, most often, those attacks are carried out in the very heart of and with the complicity of the family – the family which by its nature is called to be the ‘sanctuary of life.’ The commitment to defend the weak and preserve the family is not just a Christian commitment – it should be one that all with a basic concern for humanity can stand behind.”
Saint Mother Teresa once remarked: “If we let a mother kill the fruit of her womb, what is left to us? It is the principle of abortion that endangers peace in the world.”
Pray for the Legal Protection of the Unborn
We ask that you pray for the respect and protection of life at its earliest and most vulnerable stage, as Saint John Paul II once exhorted: Please God you may continue, closely united with one another, to be a force of renewal and hope in our society. May the Lord help you to work ceaselessly to enable all, believers and non-believers alike, to understand that protection of human life from conception is an essential condition for building a future worthy of the human being.