Unexpected Wonder

Julián Carrón - "When the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue. And many listening were amazed and said, 'Where do these things come from him?'" They could not avoid the backlash of his teaching and miracles. It is surprising to notice the dynamics by which things happen. The first dynamic we are surprised by is the shock that events cause in us. "They were stunned." 

We do not master the initial impact that things provoke in us. This astonishment happens in us, as in them, before any possibility of our intervention. It is not in our hands to prevent ourselves from being touched, hurt, amazed, or rejoiced at whatever enters our horizon. 

This initial openness, which surprises us, allows things to happen in us that we could not foresee. There is always space in us for the unexpected; it is that space that God uses to meet us, pull us out of our lethargy, apathy, and daily grind, and awaken us to a fuller life. 

When this unforeseen happens, it never leaves us indifferent, as we saw happen to Jesus' fellow citizens, so much so that it forced them to ask, "Where did these things come from him?

What wisdom is that which has been given to him? And such wonders as those performed by his hands?" Those signs were obvious; they could not help but accuse their given! But being attracted, impressed, and amazed does not mechanically predetermine the answer. 

This passage is self-evident; each person is called to respond personally, to decide between going along with the attraction it provokes or rejecting it. 

If we go along with the backlash and recognize the reality that has affected us, the newness that Jesus introduces before us opens us to the unknown possibility for us of fullness. 

Suppose we go along with the backlash and recognize the reality that has affected us; the newness that Jesus introduced before us opens us to the unknown possibility of fullness. 

Those who reject, as so often happens because they do not understand where this wisdom comes from or where he draws the power for these wonders, then deny that possibility opened by that astonishment.  

And they ask skeptically, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Ioses, Judas, and Simon? And do not his sisters stay here with us?

" Because they could not understand how one, whose whole history they knew, a carpenter, could perform such signs, instead of going along with them, letting unknown horizons open up in themselves, they shut themselves up within their own measure: "And it was a cause of scandal to them. 

What had happened to open them, when one closes himself, becomes a stumbling block. What audacity God has in choosing a method so blatant that it did not leave them in their lethargy (for they saw Him, the signs were too much of awe!) and amazed them, and at the same time so subdued that it left them free to decide before His attraction.

This is always God's method, as Jesus would later say, "A prophet is not despised except in his own country, among his relatives and in his own house." 

This refusal to accept the prophet Jesus in his homeland deprives them of the salvation He brings. "And there he could perform no wonders, but only laid hands on a few sick people and healed them." This closure to a goodness greater than one's measure leaves even Jesus speechless: "And he marveled at their unbelief." 

But he does not let this unbelief stop him, throwing in the towel as if nothing had happened. The Gospel continues, without even a little commentary, "Jesus went through the villages around, teaching." 

He went on, trying to put before someone openly the newness he had come to bring. What simplicity and tenacity of Jesus not to be discouraged by their rejection but to set out again without allowing himself to be blocked.

 God has been doing that throughout history, as we heard in the first reading: even though the prophets were sent to a "race of rebels" who turned against God who had sent them, God continues to send them. He tells them, "Listen or do not listen, since they are a rebellious race, they will at least know that a prophet is in their midst." 

As Christ assures St. Paul, he continues to do this throughout history. He, too, had a "worry" in his flesh that prevented him from sinking with his preaching; he found himself weak, but this weakness Jesus reveals to him is His strength: "My grace is sufficient for you. 

The strength is fully manifested in your weakness, you only need one thing: to receive this grace, to shine, to let this grace shine in you! Everything else will be in the hands of the one who receives it. Therefore, St. Paul is consoled. Therefore, instead of sinking into his inability, St. Paul emerges with all his new consciousness: "I will then boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 

Therefore I will delight in my weaknesses, in the outrages, in the difficulties, in the persecutions, in the anguish suffered for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, it is then that I am strong." It is thus that through these signs, through the diverse lives of His witnesses, like Paul, Christ continues to knock unexpectedly at our door. We ask to be willing, not "a rebellious generation," for our lives to be invested with His newness.
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Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year BA Unrevised Notes from the homily by Julián Carrón - July 7, 2024
The homily translation has not been revised by the author.