10th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME B

THE DAILY MENU

Another intense cycle of feasts and celebrations is over. From the hype of Easter to the mysteries expressed in doctrines, we have been brought to contemplate the very heart of our Christian faith. We reconnected to the convictions, the beliefs and the practices that define who we are in the light of the love of Christ.

Thankfully, today we return to normal once again. Plunging into ordinary time, we seek the Lord in the humdrum of daily life, in the banality of the routine, and in the common and usual things around us.

The gospel takes us to Jesus’ ordinary experiences. He comes back home bringing his disciples. People who heard of his accomplishments crowd around him leaving him no privacy and opportunity event to eat and rest. But Jesus’ fame is not the only menu in his daily schedule. The adulation of the crowd is balanced by the antagonism of others, even by some members of his family.

It is incomprehensible for us to hear that Jesus’ relatives thought he had gone mad. It is more easy for us to accept how the scribes and his critics attributed his power to his kinship with the devil. In his ordinary life, Jesus experienced the tension of admiration and disgust that his presence and his work produced in the people he met. For some he was an angel, for others he was a demon.

Jesus explains that his power has only one purpose – to crush the devil and his works in the world, thus setting people free for God and for love. His power comes from the Holy Spirit, who those that oppose him, unknowingly reject. 

Perturbed by his critics and enemies, Jesus was undeterred by them in accomplishing his mission in the company of those who truly love him, his true mother, brothers and sisters, his new family. They, like him, seek only to “do the will of God.”

How is your ordinary life like? If you are normal as the rest of humanity, there must be highs and lows, positives and negatives, consolations and desolations, bliss and challenges in your encounter with people at home, work, school and neighborhood. 

Do not lose track of your life’s purpose just because there are some people who seek to ruin your peace and joy. Instead look to Jesus and beg for the power to become like him, full of peace and assurance that the Holy Spirit is in your heart. No earthly foe and no spiritual enemy can bring destruction in your path. 

In Jesus all our daily challenges constitute the ascending ladder to joy, peace and fulfillment.