It is indeed difficult to understand how, in the course of a single visit, the people of Nazareth changed their attitude towards Jesus so suddenly: from admiration of Christ's wisdom to scepticism and murderous hostility. They refused to recognise the superiority and extraordinary mission of one who had grown up among them.

In paying this particular visit to Nazareth, Christ's purpose was to preach the kingdom of God. He was accompanied by the disciples who would have learned a useful lesson for their own ministry from the rejection of Christ by his own townsmen.

The people of Nazareth were all the more astonished at Christ's wisdom because they knew that he had not attended a rabbinical school. Hence the change in their minds from admiration of Christ to scepticism and ill-will. He had returned to Nazareth with the reputation of a prophet and wonder-worker, but his townsmen took offence at that. They knew his relatives and his own humble way of life too well to accept him as a divinely appointed teacher. "Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary?" This is, by the way, the only passage in all four Gospels which tells us something about the hidden life of Christ.

Jesus answered the scepticism of the people of Nazareth with words equivalent to a proverb we all know: "Familiarity breeds contempt". Our Lord's words disclose the real reason for the offence they have taken at him and also affirm his claim to be a prophet. Christ's power to work miracles was not limited or lost, but faith, which his townsmen lacked, was normally demanded for the exercise of this power. His wonder at their lack of faith was real. Their attitude was something new and quite a hurtful one in the course of his human experience.

Each of us probably knows from experience that familiarity often does breed contempt, or at least outright indifference, which is worse. We seem to be able to honour distant heroes, but have difficulty in accepting those nearest to us. Also, we can often take advice from strangers, but resent it from those close to us.

Today's Gospel message, therefore, can hit home to us in two different ways. In some circumstances we ourselves might be the ones who are closed to the insights of others, insights that could open our lives to new and exiting challenges. After all, why should we be jealous of the gifts God may have given to others and not to us? In other circumstances, on the other hand, we might be the ones who feel unappreciated, overlooked or even rejected because of some ability which we genuinely possess or some service we can and with to offer.

Jesus' painful experience, so briefly described by Mark in today's Gospel, constantly repeats itself today in those among his followers who have taken upon themselves the mission of bringing Christ into today's society. Indifference, if not outright rejection, is almost always there. But if we are men of faith, we can be sure that the little seed we may be able to throw into the field of our routine work will not fail in God's good time to yield good fruit without our knowing it.

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