In today’s Gospel reading, we see Jesus returning to a cold reception in his hometown after having preached to large, enthusiastic crowds throughout Galilee.
Despite all he had done elsewhere, no one in Nazareth hailed him as Messiah.
Instead, they seem to have paid him little heed at all.
He was able to perform a few miracles, but no one believed that he was a prophet, much less the Son of God.
Because the Nazarenes chose their own grasp of Jesus rather than looking for divine insight.
What about us?
We know that Jesus is the Son of God.
We believe it; we profess it every week at Mass.
Yet how do we relate to Jesus?
Do we come to him each morning in prayer expecting to be lifted up to heaven and to touch the very heart of God
? Do we go to Mass expecting to taste his glory through the Eucharist?
The challenging truth is that we cannot trust our own abilities to bring about the kind of faith that transforms lives.
We need to rely on God to give us divine revelation by his Holy Spirit—revelation that will bring our faith to life.
The good news is that when we do look to the Holy Spirit, we discover that he delights in revealing Jesus to us.
He wants to pierce our hearts with the love of Christ in a way that transforms us into his image.
As we come to learn who Jesus is, like Peter, we will be led to proclaim:
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Like Thomas, we will cry out: “My Lord and my God!”
And like John, we will come face-to-face with the God who is love
. The more Jesus reveals himself to us, the more we can begin to grasp
“what is the breadth and length and height and depth” of the Lord we follow (Ephesians 3:18).
Nothing compares to knowing Jesus
. The revelation of his love and power is well worth striving for!
*"Lord, I want to know you. *
*Come and reveal yourself to me more deeply * than ever before."
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