MERITS OF HONOUR

DAY 185 OF 365 IN 2021

Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

“If you see Him as the carpenter’s son, you only merit to receive the graces at work in the carpenter’s son.” This is the simplest summary of events in today’s text and events appear very similar to that time when Jesus asked his disciples ‘who do you say I am? Honour is a very interesting concept, but if there is one thing easily agreed on, it is that ‘people show up according to the degree of honour accorded them’.

Often, some will do more to prove a point but very often, many will only just meet the expectations set of them. If you only acknowledge a billionaire as a millionaire, you literally close yourself off to the higher possibilities that exist and that is what we realise during this visit of Jesus to his hometown. His townfolk saw Him as the carpenter’s son, thus they only merited to become recipients of the graces at work in the life of the carpenter’s son, and that was a handful of signs, with no mighty signs.

Beloved, one thing is true: ‘because faith comes by hearing the Word, the dimension of God that is emphasised in any life is the dimension that is manifested the most. In a place  where his healing is highlighted, He moves mightily to heal ; where his love is emphasised, he sheds it even more abroad. The last thing we want to do is see Jesus just as a carpenter’s son, for then we draw only what merits that level of honour brings. We ought to see Him as more than that.

# sly