Father Tim Lemlin
After a while the old man looked over fondly at his wife and said, "Agatha, I'm proud of you."
"What was that you said," the old lady asked in return. "You know I'm hard of hearing. Speak up."
"I said I'm proud of you."
But still she couldn't hear. "Will you please speak up," she said.
This time he shouted, "I said I'm proud of you."
"Oh, that's all right, George," the old lady responded. "I'm tired of you too."
Both our first reading from Ezekiel and our gospel reading from Mark have almost a sinister feeling to them. Ezekiel is told that he is being sent to speak in God's name, as God's prophet, but the Israelites will remain "hard of face and obstinate of heart." Jesus returns to the town in which he had lived most of his life, and when he speaks in the synagogue he is almost completely rejected. What are Ezekiel and Jesus saying that causes such a reaction?
I suspect that most of the people to whom Ezekiel and Jesus are speaking understand themselves as belonging to a particular religious group. Their attendance at religious events and their ability to pay their dues are the criteria for membership. Ezekiel, Jesus, and all of the prophets speak a word of God that contradicts this way of life. They say that religion is not about membership (attendance, or a person's ability to pay dues), it is about transformation.
It seems to me that we don't come to this perspective easily. It feels more comfortable to us to belong to a particular group. We can see much more clearly who belongs and who doesn't. Usually, the criterion is similarity. This perspective also allows us to project evil outside of ourselves onto others who are not like us, or who don't share our beliefs. It isolates and insulates us. I gives us a false sense of security, one in which I come to believe that I can earn God's love and my salvation.
Transformation begins with the realization that evil resides in me. Transformation grows out of my choice to forgive life for all of its inconsistencies and hurtfulness. Transformation isn't something that I do, it is something done to me. It is the numerous deaths to my self-sufficient, isolating ego. Transformation gives me an experience of love that connects me with God and with all others.
When we look at each of the prophets, and certainly with Jesus, we discover that they each have an experience of God that tells them who they are. They know experientially that they are loved in their imperfection. For Jesus, this is expressed in his knowing that he is son and beloved of God. For St. Paul, it is the experience that he has while he is on his way to Damascus with orders to imprison or kill any who are following the Jewish "New Way." Jesus' words, "Why are you persecuting me?," causes Paul to realize that in his zeal for justice he has become satanic, and even in this state the love of God in Jesus continues to embrace him.
Faith, as we see in our gospel story, isn't about belonging to a particular religion or church. Faith is about the transformative power that we experience when we know that we are loved. It is like the experience we have when we fall in love for the first time. A transformation occurs within us. We feel alive. We know who we are. We know that life is not about me. I am about life. It is the freedom that keeps us connected with each other even we get tired of each other.
