Fourth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

“Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Yet again, the gospel gives us another account of Jesus being rejected by the people who know him best. They do this in spite of recognizing his wisdom and the might of his deeds. They simply cannot get past their own opinion of Jesus. Sometimes we do the same thing in regards to others in our lives. We make a judgment about them based off our first impressions or a long-lasting relationship with them. However, we must always be open to changing our opinions of others as we learn more about them, especially those people we find most difficult to like. Our perception of their motives, personality, etc. can be colored by a variety of things and often we do not have the whole picture about why a person acts a certain way towards us or others. The people in Jesus’ native place probably saw him as overstepping his authority and puffing himself up with false claims. Perhaps someone in our lives appears to be something they are not. It is up to us to be open to seeing them with new eyes so that we can come to know the real person behind our opinions of them.

Who are the people we don’t like in our lives? Have we made an honest attempt to get to know them? Would we be willing to change our opinions of them if we found out who they truly are?

O Lord, let us be open to changing our hearts towards others, especially those whom we find most difficult to love.

Amen.