The Two Natures:
The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024
July 7, 2024
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Ezekiel 2:2-5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6
This Gospel passage shows just how difficult it is to understand who Jesus is. The people of his time misunderstood him, and we can misunderstand him even today. The people of his village were confused because they knew his life, education, and craft, and now he is astonishing them with him wisdom. People do not like to see someone become too set apart from them. We like to see gradual growth and we do not want to see someone go away for a while and come back changed. We want to see the person return to be “just like us.” Jesus, after he went away to pray came back as someone different from the villagers.
In today’s world, we sometimes do not read the nature and identity of Jesus with full understanding. What does it mean to say that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. Seventeen hundred years ago, the Council of Nicaea tried to definitively answer that question, and it has not been easily understood. How is Jesus fully human and still fully God? Our Christian traditions have placed layer upon layer of interpretation on his identity so that he remains obscure. For instance, the Gospel clearly names the brothers of Jesus and indicates that he has sisters. Scripture scholars tell us that they are meant to be siblings because there is another word for cousin. In this case, we want Jesus to be other than us so that we can understand him as the Son of God.
Sometimes on retreat, when I ask about the person of Jesus, a retreatant will give an indication that God is covered over in a human body and lets divinity shine through at certain moments. They say something like, “Jesus never raised his voice to his parents. He was a star mathematician and excelled in all his subjects. He was good in sports and very clever in all that he did. He was in control of his emotions.” To frame Jesus in this way is to deny his humanity.
Part of our confusion happens because of the way the Gospels are written. They describe the historical life of Jesus through the lens of the Resurrection. By this time, they are coming to realize that Jesus shared divine life with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The evangelists write about the human Jesus through the lens of his Risen nature, so the Gospels are not an historical portrait of the man. Think about our customs for our dead. We speak well of the deceased, and sometimes we add a few more laudatory comments about the deceased than we would have said when the person was alive. The Gospel writers were able to attribute godly qualities to Jesus that they did not see when he was alive.
It might be helpful to think of Jesus in this way. Jesus of Nazareth was a man who did good for many, brought healing to the sick, was able to bring about miraculous actions, and he formed a community of faith centered around God as father. Because he preached a kingdom centered theology, those with a temple centered theology killed him. Jesus was faithfully obedient to God’s will, which led to his death. Jesus died and was buried. Jesus because our Christ of faith when his disciples began to experience that Jesus was alive to them in a new way. God validated the life, teaching, healings, and actions of Jesus, his entire personhood, in a way that his friends encountered him as alive and present to them and when death did not have dominion over him, and he became our Christ of faith. Jesus of Nazareth becomes the Christ of our faith.
Next year, the church celebrates the 1700th anniversary of this assertion about the nature and identity of Jesus. It is destined to be a time of Christian unity, though we may worship at other tables and hold different views. It is a time for us to come together and acknowledge the root of our faith – that Jesus is Lord.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Hosea 2) I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt.
Tuesday: (Hosea 8) They made kings in Israel, but not by my authority; they established princes, but without my approval. With their silver and gold they made idols for themselves, to their own destruction.
Wednesday: (Hosea 10) Israel is a luxuriant vine whose fruit matches its growth. The more abundant his fruit, the more altars he built; The more productive his land, the more sacred pillars he set up. Their heart is false, now they pay for their guilt
Thursday: (Hosea 11) When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, Sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk.
Friday (Hosea 14) Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls.
Saturday (Isaiah 6) Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
Gospel:
Monday: (Matthew 9) While Jesus was speaking, an official came forward, knelt down before him, and said, “My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus rose and followed him, and so did his disciples.
Tuesday: (Matthew 9) A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke. The crowds were amazed and said,
“Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
Wednesday (Matthew 10) Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Thursday (Matthew 10) Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick.
Friday (Matthew 10) But beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.
Saturday (Matthew 10) No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master.
Saints of the Week
July 9: Augustine Zhao Rong, priest and companions, Chinese martyrs (1648-1930) were 120 Chinese martyrs that included priests, children, parents, catechists and common laborers. Christians were persecuted throughout Chinese history. Augustine Zhao Rong was a diocesan priest who was brought to the faith after the example of the French missionary bishop Dufresse. Zhao Rong was arrested in 1815 and died in prison.
July 9: Leo Mangan, S.J., martyr of the Boxer rebellion in China.
July 11: Benedict, Abbot (480-547), was educated in Rome, but left after a few years to take on a life of solitude. He became a monk at Subiaco and lived alone, but his lifestyle developed followers so he built 12 monasteries for them. He left to found a monastery at Monte Cassino where he wrote his Rule that became a standard for Western monasticism. He adopted the practices of the austere Desert Fathers for community life and emphasized moderation, humility, obedience, prayer, and manual labor.
July 13: Henry, king (972-1024) was a descendent of Charlemagne who became king of Germany and the Holy Roman Emperor. His wife had no offspring. He merged the church's affairs with the secular government and built the cathedral in the newly erected diocese of Bamberg. He was a just ruler who paid close attention to his prayer.
This Week in Jesuit History
- July 7, 1867. The beatification of the 205 Japanese Martyrs, 33 of them members of the Society of Jesus.
- July 8, 1767. D'Aubeterre wrote to De Choiseul: "It is impossible to obtain the Suppression from the Pope [Clement XIII]; it must be wrested from him by occupying papal territory."
- July 9, 1763. The Society is expelled from New Orleans and Louisiana at the bidding of the French government.
- July 10, 1881. Fr. Frederick Garesche' wrote from Sequin, Texas, to his Superior: "The cowboys who had not deigned at first to lift their hat to the priest or missionary; who had come to the mission as to a camp meeting, for the fun of the thing, gave in, and their smiles and awkward salutes showed that they had hearts under their rude exterior."
- July 11, 1809. After Pius VII had been dragged into exile by General Radet, Fr. Alphonsus Muzzarrelli SJ, his confessor, was arrested in Rome and imprisoned at Civita Vecchia.
- July 12, 1594. In the French Parliament Antoine Arnauld, the Jansenist, made a violent attack on the Society, charging it with rebellious feelings toward King Henry IV and with advocating the doctrine of regicide.
- July 13, 1556. Ignatius, gravely ill, handed over the daily governance of the Society to Juan de Polanco and Cristobal de Madrid.
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