A Commentary and Reflection on the Readings for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year B. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. READINGS: Ezekiel 2:2-5, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Mark 6:1-6.
The Liturgy of the Mass is Building a People Who Choose Obedience Over Comfort
There is no easy way to enter or exit this life. From our wet delivery into this world to our decaying exit, we are simply a source of people’s joy, suffering, pain, and pleasure. This saying is true for the natural man. However, the Divine Symphony of the Mass is assisting God in birthing us into being not the source of the finite things we have to offer the world but, instead, a fountain of infinite love He has to share with His people.
The liturgy of the Catholic Mass participates in the desire of God to form us into becoming His agents of love and peace by being for us a type of womb in which we are born again through Baptism. In the womb of the liturgy, our mother, through the umbilical cord we call the priest, the Catholic Mass feeds and nurtures us with the Word and Lamb of God. After which time, the liturgy has then nurtured our mind, body, and soul to make us whole and prepared us to be in the world whom she has prepared us to be; we experience a type of nativity by processing out of the nave of the Church and into the light and darkness of the world. Yes, we are born again at every Mass, and we signify this transcendent reality whenever we cover our body with the Sign of the Cross – the sign of our Baptism at its opening. We are born again so that we might have a life that is not our own. Rather, a life that remains connected to the umbilical cord and, thereby, the sacraments. Remaining connected to the divine umbilical cord is the only thing that allows us to do as David prophesied: to walk through the valleys of the shadow of death, yet fearing no evil, because our Shepherd never departs from us.[1]
The liturgical womb of the Church does not propose to be a comfortable place. Indeed, if you are comfortable in the Mass, you are doing it all completely wrong. I know we go through daunting and expensive efforts to make worship comfortable by installing padded kneelers and padded seats, positioning well-trained ushers to help us get seated, and adorning the sacred space with beautiful images and sounds, but being born again in Christ and being transubstantiated into the Body of Christ is not supposed to be relaxing or comfortable. We also get liturgy wrong when we immediately pursue comfort after we have been dismissed from the liturgy. It is as if we do not understand where Christ Jesus has dismissed us. He has not dismissed us from our school of formation for us to go eat donuts and drink coffee or to merely indulge in our most comfortable habits of the day. God has not dismissed us from the liturgical womb of the Mass to be ourselves. Rather, He has birthed us to love Him and to go forth from the womb to go and be His mind, body, heart, and strength in the world. In sending us into the world, Christ Jesus knows the danger we will face, which is why He keeps us connected to the umbilical cord of His Church through the Sacraments.
In today’s First Reading from Ezekiel 2:2-5 for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B, the prophet Ezekiel spoke about God’s sending of him in this way; “As the LORD spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet.” Immediately, this verse of sacred Scripture sounds liturgical. Again, at hearing the Word of God, Ezekiel stood up, just as we do during the Gospel Reading. He continues, saying, “I heard the one who was speaking say to me: Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have revolted against me to this very day. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. But you shall say to them: Thus says the LORD GOD! And whether they heed or resist—for they are a rebellious house— they shall know that a prophet has been among them.” Notice that the Lord God does not send the prophet into this dangerous situation to be himself or to speak his own words, but rather, to utter precisely what God has given him to speak, “Thus says the LORD GOD!”
The promise to Ezekiel is not that the Israelites will be attentive or even hear what he has been given to speak, but simply to be obedient to the mission that he has been sent on, or as verse eight, in a very liturgical and Eucharistic way, says, “But you, son of man, hear me when I speak to you and do not rebel like this rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”
Again, we are not called to comfort; we are called to obedience and to remain connected to Christ Jesus, no matter how difficult this life becomes or how much our ego wants to trust in itself. The Apostle Paul wrote in today’s Second Reading from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 about how he journeyed through suffering and discomfort by trusting in the umbilical cord of God’s grace, writing, “That I, Paul, might not become too elated, because of the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Again, Saint Paul begged the Lord for comfort three times, but in the end, the Apostle pursued the path of using his suffering to suffer in Christ so that he might be perfected through it.
It is true; we can ask God to take us out of our dire situation. We can ask Him to take us around it or under it. However, what if God wants to treat us like the Israelites and take us through the Red Sea? Will we not trust that He is with us and in us, no matter what we must endure to make it home to our destiny?
You may be like the prophet Ezekiel and be sent into harm’s way, or you may be like the Apostle Paul and have to suffer from physical or emotional difficulties, or you may be like Christ Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading from Mark 6:1-6, and be sent into places that reject and judge you for where you come from or who your family is or where you have been. The text says that on the Sabbath day, after teaching in a synagogue what His Eternal Father had sent Him to teach, many people in His hometown of Nazareth could only judge Him by their knowledge of Him rather than His knowledge of God. To which Jesus replied, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” Indeed, those who seek comfort will always find the world. However, those who pursue obedience will always remain connected to God and find true peace.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
[1] Cf. Palm 23:4.
