Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s gospel Jesus returns to his home town, to Nazareth, where he grew up. Here the people know him: he is the carpenter’s son. This is from Matthew’s gospel. In the parallel passage in Mark (6:3), Jesus is referred to as the carpenter. Here we can infer some things about the life of Jesus. We know that Joseph was a carpenter (hence carpenter’s son), and that Joseph must have taught this trade to the young Jesus, who then became known also for practicing this trade. Thus, we know a little bit more about Jesus. But this knowing Jesus can become a problem for us just as it did for the people of Nazareth.

The people of Nazareth knew Jesus; they knew his trade; they knew his relatives. And so, when Jesus came to them in a new way, as a preacher of the gospel, they found it difficult to accept this new Jesus. He was outside of the box that they had put him in, and they couldn’t accept it.

We can fall into the same trap. We can come to a point in our lives where we are satisfied with our knowledge of Jesus, and we just want him to stay that way. That is why Jesus sometimes lets us be shaken in our faith. We need to be shaken out of our complacency so that we are open to knowing him better.

The fact is that our knowledge of Christ will never be complete, in this life or in the next. We can anticipate spending all of eternity falling more and more deeply into the knowledge and love of God. That is some of what Heaven will be for us.

Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB