Every year, thousands upon thousands of Americans and visitors from many other parts of the world tour the beautiful churches of Europe. Pilgrims and tourists alike show admiration for the sacred buildings they had travelled so far to see. The only ones who tend not to be impressed by those amazing sites are the locals who live around them. They just don't care. They do not appreciate the invaluable treasures that are their heritage.
Familiarity, as the saying goes, breeds contempt, or sometimes just plain indifference. Or perhaps the problem is the lack of true familiarity. The people who are so uninterested in the wonders surrounding them have, for the most part, lost touch with the true value and deep history of it all. American pilgrim groups will travel thousands of miles to experience sites that the locals will not walk a few blocks to see.
But we should examine our own lives as well. Do we, like those indifferent Europeans and the residents of the home village of Jesus in this Sunday's Gospel, fail to see the grace of God in our midst? A personal story comes to mind.
Over the years, I have led eight pilgrimages to eleven different countries, covering a multitude of world famous holy sites. I love traveling, exploring new places, and sharing those experiences with others. When I went to Medjugorje for the first time, in 2017, I experienced a profound revelation. I didn't see visions or hear any heavenly voices. However, as I returned home, I realized that my perspective had changed on many things.
Suddenly, I realized that even though traveling to holy sites can be a very beautify and rewarding experience, all I really needed was waiting for me at home. Jesus is present in the Tabernacle right here, in my home church. Jesus invites us into the most intimate communion between the Creator and his creation at every Mass. The Sacrament of Reconciliation cleanses us of our sins without having to travel to any special site to gain forgiveness. The Scriptures bring me the Word of God wherever I am.
God's grace is present for each of us in the prayers, sacraments, and spiritual practices of the Church every day. The question is whether or not we recognize and embrace God's presence in our lives. Most of the people of the home village of Jesus could not do so. They had seen Jesus live among them the simple life of a carpenter. When he started revealing his divinity to them, they were not able to overcome their assumptions about him. Can we do better, for our own sake, so that the grace of God can transform our lives?
In the reading from Second Corinthians, we see that St. Paul finds God's grace even in his weakness, in his suffering. He speaks of an affliction, a thorn in the flesh through the attack of a fallen angel, that causes him continual distress. Scripture scholars have not identified a specific explanation for what this thorn in the flesh might have been. But we can see that it is an ongoing source of suffering for the Apostle, in addition to the many other afflictions that he suffers for proclaiming the Gospel to the world.
So how does St. Paul find grace even in these circumstances? His suffering helps to check his own ego. His suffering makes him weak and forces him to rely entirely on God's power in his life. He knows that he cannot do things through his own strength. The good that he is accomplishing is not for his own glory but for the glory of God. Suffering helps saint Paul reorient his perspective, thereby helping him to place Christ in the center of his life. By doing so, he receives an abundance of graces, which, as we know from his writings, give him joy far beyond anything he had experienced before.
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The readings for Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B are:
Ez 2:2-5
Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4
2 Cor 12:7-10
Mk 6:1-6
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Nazareth, the village where Jesus grew up (c) 2013 by Zoltan Abraham.