Gospel Reflection 2020/2021

Two Sundays ago, Jesus revealed Himself as the Master of the wind and the sea [Mk 4: 35-41]. Last Sunday, Jesus revealed Himself as the Lord of life and death. St Mark the evangelist makes it abundantly clear that Jesus is indeed the Holy One of God, the King of the Universe, and the Lord over life and death.

Our expectations on Jesus pile high. However, the Gospel reading this 14^th Sunday in the Ordinary Time takes a disappointing dip – Jesus could work no miracles in His own hometown… He was amazed at their lack of faith… If Jesus is truly God, He must be omnipotent to do as He pleases. How can He ‘fail’ to perform great signs and wonders? How can He disappoint us?

1) Jesus is not a circus clown who goes around performing magic tricks to entertain us or to win our admirations. He is God and He does whatever He sees fit. God-is-with-us, yet we are tempted to go out to seek Him in the extraordinary, the rhetoric and the spectacular. We miss God who is always with us in the ordinary, the mundane and the uneventful. Will we choose to continue to believe if Jesus does not perform miracles for us? Will we desert Jesus or discount Him as a liar if the miracles we demand have not taken place?

2) God is a lover, not a rapist. Sorry that it may sound crude and rude; but it is true. God offers us the gift of faith, and we are free to accept or reject it. St Augustine teaches that, “Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” If we have faith, we will see the unseen grace of God already given to us: a good measure, shaken together, running over, put into our lap [Lk 6: 38]. Only through the eyes of faith, can we see the wonders of God’s love and the miracles of life around us.

3) Familiarity breeds contempt. There is a negative correlation that the more we know, the less we love. It is even more so when we think we know better or when we think we know it all. Consciously or subconsciously, we have often judged that:

• this is just another day in life;

• this is just my hopeless spouse/ child;

• this is just another Mass;

• this is just another familiar Scripture verse or passage;

• this is just another Church/ BEC meeting;

• or perhaps, this is just another troublemaking priest/ bishop/ pope…

We often put God in a box – being skeptical and unbelieving that God can still work wonders through our knowns and unknowns, our likes and dislikes. To have faith is to let go and let God (be God). Faith is to let God out of the box, let Him take charge, to expect the unexpected, and to be open to the God of surprises.

Fr Richard Rohr beautifully says that, “God comes to us disguised as our life.” Let none of us resist Him, or worst still, slam the door in His face. May we always be able to recognize and welcome our loving God who comes to us.

Let our fervent prayer be:

“Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see You.”