Pride and Judgment

I am always bemused when I read the passages in the Gospels that casually mention Jesus not being welcomed in His hometown. It happens quite often if we're paying attention and yet it always makes me wonder, why did those living near Christ not marvel at His works? Why did they not accept Him? Why did they not want more of His love in their lives? Why reject Him?

I can only imagine that they first judged Him. They knew His family, the small house where He grew up maybe. It was all so ordinary. How could anything extraordinary, let alone the Messiah, come from such ordinary beginnings?

Then I think a measure of pride comes into their treatment of Christ. They grew up in the same village as Jesus, they would know if He was really something special, they couldn't admit now that He was becoming a popular phenomenon across the country that they lived alongside Him His entire life yet failed to realize who He really was.

Faith cannot exist in these conditions. How can faith grow and blossom in an environment of judgement, prejudice, and conceit? Jesus could not make miracles happen where there was no faith.

But then I realize too often I am just like those hometown scoffers I get frustrated with. Here I am, a baptized Catholic who has access to the fullness of Truth, the wonder that is the Sacraments, receiving Christ's Own Body every time I receive Communion. But at the same time I can be completely conceited and prideful in my daily relationship with Christ. I choose my way over His, my time over prayer, my attachments over having faith He can change my life. I want miracles yet stifle my own faith while living in Christ's very midst.

This Lent I'm giving Christ my little faith and handing over my conceits so that I may recognize His power in my life today. I want to recognize His presence in my life, and to be in awe of it everyday.

I want miracles yet stifle my own faith. Click to tweet