20140801 FAMILIARITY A BANE OR BOON IN
COMING TO KNOW THE LORD WHO IS A GOD OF SURPRISES
Reading 1, Jeremiah 26:1-9
1 At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of
Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh,
2 'Yahweh says this, "Stand in the court of the Temple of
Yahweh. To all the people from the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of Yahweh you will say
everything I have ordered you to say, not omitting one syllable.
3 Perhaps they will listen and
each turn from his evil way: if so,
I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intend because of
their misdeeds."
4 Say to them, "Yahweh says this: If you will not listen
to me and follow my Law which I have
given you,
5 and pay attention to the words of my servants the
prophets whom I have never tired of sending to you, although you never have
paid attention,
6 I shall treat this Temple as I
treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the
world." '
7 The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of
Yahweh.
8 When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that Yahweh had
ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets and all the
people seized hold of him and said, 'You will die for
this!
9 Why have you made this prophecy in
Yahweh's name, "This Temple will become like
Shiloh, and this city become an uninhabited ruin"?' And the people all
crowded in on Jeremiah in the Temple of
Yahweh.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 69:6, 8-10, 14
6 Those who hope in you must
not be made fools of, Yahweh Sabaoth,
because of me! Those who seek you must not be disgraced, God of Israel,
because of me!
8 I am estranged from my brothers, alienated from my own
mother's sons;
10 I mortify myself with fasting, and find myself insulted
for it,
14 Rescue me from the mire before I sink in; so I shall be
saved from those who hate me, from the watery depths.
Gospel, Matthew 13:54-58
54 and, coming to his home town, he taught the people in
their synagogue in
such a way that they were astonished and said, 'Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous
powers?
55 This is the carpenter's son, surely? Is not his mother
the woman called
Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon
and Jude?
57 And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is
despised only in his own country and in his own house,'
58 and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack
of faith.
FAMILIARITY
A BANE OR BOON IN COMING TO KNOW THE LORD WHO IS A GOD OF SURPRISES
“Where did the man get this
wisdom and these miraculous powers?” In asking this question, the
townsfolk of Jesus were not really interested to know the source or origin of
His wisdom and power. Rather, they asked in skepticism, in disbelief that
He had such powers since He was only one of them and furthermore, only the son
of a carpenter.
At the beginning of chapter
13, we read how the disciples of Jesus and many others followed Him even to the
seaside, gathering around Him to listen to Him and be healed. The
townsfolk of Jesus on the contrary were not hungry for the Word. They were
there at the synagogue merely out of convenience, habit, and probably out of
curiosity. They did not expect to get anything much from Him. In
the words of today’s gospel, “A prophet is only despised in his own country and
in his own house.” It was a case of over familiarity.
In contrast we have the
situation of Jeremiah in the first reading. He too was called by the Lord
to prophesy. But when he spoke the truth as instructed, they accused him
of being a false prophet. They did not want to hear the truth and the bad
news. They could not see how God could have spoken to him instead of
speaking to them, the prophets and religious leaders appointed to serve at the
temple. It was a case of a lack of familiarity. They were
not used to hearing such prophesy against Judah and against the Temple.
It was simply unacceptable, more so from one not known to them.
So the question is whether
familiarity is a bane or boon. Is it good to be familiar with the Lord
or to keep a distance from Him? Familiarity with God implies that we
are in a personal relationship with Him. We know Him so well that we are
comfortable with Him and can rely on Him. We know that God can be trusted
to act. In such a relationship, familiarity brings true friendship and
intimacy.
Unfortunately, it is
also equally true that familiarity has brought contempt for God and for others
in our lives. This is because when we are familiar with someone we
become prisoners of history and our past. We look at people whom we know
with an old mindset. We do not see that people are changing all the time,
not only physically but also in character. No one can remain the same all
the time. We are dynamic beings, changing for the better or for the
worse. But when we see them as fossilized beings, then we are not
relating with who they are now but what they were. This is so true
especially in community living. We often look at each other based on our
past experiences with that person. We do not look anew when we see each
other. We tend to label each other as arrogant, boastful, lazy etc.
Consequently, we must
recognize that familiarity can make us prejudiced against others.
For this reason, our problems are never resolved because we are using old
solutions to tackle a changed situation. This is certainly a great injustice to
any relationship. It is as good as condemning them.
Distant familiarity too
can be used as an excuse for not changing. We say to ourselves, “Oh, God understands
us. God knows what we are doing. He knows why I am not
praying.” Isn’t this what we say of our friends too? We take them
for granted. We are not serious in growing in that relationship.
Complacency in relationship simply means that we are relying on old times,
again implying that people never change, that those relationships never change.
Perhaps, at the root of
it is our fear of the future. We do not want to change. We do
not like the unknown. We want to control our lives and our future.
Fear is thus connected with pride and ego. We do not want to feel
vulnerable. We want to be in charge of the situation. So when we
are challenged to go beyond our comfort zone, we become nervous and
threatened. Consequently our self-defense mechanism operates by making us
reject whatever is new and unfamiliar.
But what is even more
tragic is that when familiarity also enters into our relationship with God,
especially in prayer and worship, we truly suffer. The greatest obstacle
in coming to know God more deeply and to experience the power of His miracles
working in our lives is simply because we are too familiar, or ritualistic in
the way we relate with God or talk about Him. We become irreverent in the
way we relate with Him. We lose the sense of awe and sacredness before
God.
Our relationship with
the Lord is but a memory of the past. In itself, it is not wrong. We must know the past
in order to ground our present reflection and openness. However, we must
go beyond such past knowledge to a personal knowledge. Indeed, only when
we are able to go beyond ourselves, can we allow fresh experiences to
happen. On the basis of the past, Jeremiah could trust in the Lord to
help him.
There is of course a price to pay for
failing to take God or our relationships with others seriously.
Indeed, as St Matthew noted, Jesus “did not work many miracles there because of
their lack of faith.” We will never be able to see the transformation in
the lives of our fellowmen when we are not open to the fact that we are meeting
a new person. Similarly, because we are not open to a new relationship
with the Lord, we will miss out the opportunity to experience Him powerfully in
our lives. By clinging to our fixated relationship with God, we imprison
and restrict the ways the Spirit works in the world.
Consequently, we must
pray for faith, so that we can say truly that we know “where did the man
get this wisdom and these miraculous powers” from; and we know that a person
has been transformed because God is at work in his/her life. Let us pray that
we can “accept God’s message for what it really is; God’s message and not some
human thinking.” We must with faith cling to the promise of God in the
scriptures. We must pray and relate with Him in faith, believing that God
is always working in new ways in our lives. If we remember the past, it
is in order that we can pray with confidence that just as in the past, He will
manifest His power again, albeit in ever new and marvelous ways. God is
the I Am.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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