“Why aren’t you pulling for the Bruins?†I asked my neighbor, because their star player came from a big family in the nearby village.
“I know about them!†he replied. “That family,†and then he said things I won’t repeat.
Familiarity breeds contempt, and so it was with Jesus and the villagers of Nazareth. They thought they knew all about Him. Maybe when He was a boy they saw Him in weakness, struggling to smooth a plank, or suffering the sweats of a fever. Maybe they held a grudge against Him because His handiwork was finer than theirs. Who knows? We seize any chance to set aside the inconvenient call of the truth. A superficial familiarity with the messenger gives us an excuse to ignore His message.
With Jesus, though the stakes are infinitely higher. He is Himself the message†the way, the truth, ad the life. His message and His person are mediated through His Church, and that gives us another excuse to ignore Him: “ I know all about the Church,†says the modern Nazorean. “I went to a parochial school,†or “I was an alter boy†Such credentials!! So people who didn’t grow up in “Nazareth†may be quicker to see in Jesus their only Savior, and to want to know him truly.
Anthony Esolen
The Inconvenient Call of Truth
The Inconvenient Call of Truth
Devotion to the souls in Purgatory contains in itself all the works of mercy, which supernaturalized by a spirit of faith, should merit us Heaven. de Sales