Where did the man get all that wisdom? He's just a carpenter's son!

First Friday of August Memorial of the Sacred Heart & Day of Penance
Friday of the Seventeenth week in Ordinary Time     2 August 2013
St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop († 371)

First Reading: Leviticus 23:1.4-11.15-16.27.34b-37.

The LORD said to Moses,
"These, then, are the festivals of the LORD which you shall celebrate at their proper time with a sacred assembly.
The Passover of the LORD falls on the fourteenth day of the first month, at the evening twilight.
The fifteenth day of this month is the LORD'S feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
On the first of these days you shall hold a sacred assembly and do no sort of work.
On each of the seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD. Then on the seventh day you shall again hold a sacred assembly and do no sort of work."
The LORD said to Moses,
"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you come into the land which I am giving you, and reap your harvest, you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest,
who shall wave the sheaf before the LORD that it may be acceptable for you. On the day after the sabbath the priest shall do this.
"Beginning with the day after the sabbath, the day on which you bring the wave-offering sheaf, you shall count seven full weeks,
and then on the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day, you shall present the new cereal offering to the LORD.
"The tenth of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement, when you shall hold a sacred assembly and mortify yourselves and offer an oblation to the LORD.
"Tell the Israelites: The fifteenth day of this seventh month is the LORD'S feast of Booths, which shall continue for seven days.
On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly, and you shall do no sort of work.
For seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD, and on the eighth day you shall again hold a sacred assembly and offer an oblation to the LORD. On that solemn closing you shall do no sort of work.
"These, therefore, are the festivals of the LORD on which you shall proclaim a sacred assembly, and offer as an oblation to the LORD holocausts and cereal offerings, sacrifices and libations, as prescribed for each day,

Ps 81(80):3-4.5-6ab.10-11ab.

Take up a melody, and sound the timbrel,
the pleasant harp and the lyre.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our solemn feast.

For it is a statute in Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob,
Who made it a decree for Joseph
when he came forth from the land of Egypt.

“There shall be no strange god among you
nor shall you worship any alien god.
I, the LORD, am your God
who led you forth from the land of Egypt.”
 

Gospel of St. Matthew 13:54-58.

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, "Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
Is he not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?"
And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honour except in his native place and in his own house."
And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

Commentary of the day :

Did Jesus have brothers & sisters? Well if your read my blog on the apocryphal (as in, not accepted as authentic) book Proto-evengelium of St James, you will read that Joseph (the husband of Jesus’ mother Mary) had children and was a widower before he married Mary so the “brothers of the Lord” would be a reference to his step-brothers.

The main point I want to make about this Gospel is never to under-estimate your ability to change the world just because people think they have your number. They know your family? They think they do. So He’s a carpenter’s son. So what? Doesn’t make Him less of an inspiration dependent on His occupation? I was labelled negatively (and incorrectly) as being a factory worker. What’s wrong with that?

As our good Lord said, “A prophet is not recognise in his own family”.

I remember saying that to Bishop Manning when I protested about being sent to Penrith (where I grew up). His snide retort was, “I don’t think anyone will be confusing you with any prophet”.

Now he’s saying Masses in the Church I built. Must be like eating humble pie..

Benedict XVI, pope from 2005 to 2013 Encyclical « Spe Salvi », 47

"Because of their lack of faith"

Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Savior. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgment. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation “as through fire”. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God. In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love. Indeed, it has already been burned away through Christ's Passion. At the moment of judgment we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.