Please read the passage before reading the homily
Jesus grew up in Nazareth. He apparently had an uneventful childhood, except, perhaps, for one instance when he stayed behind in Jerusalem. He was not known for doing miraculous things, such as making bird models come alive. We know little about Jesus before he began his public ministry.
Then Jesus came back home after having spent some time with John the Baptist near the Jordan River. His acquaintances, friends and family were astonished. They had no idea that Jesus had this kind of stuff in him. He had not studied under any famous rabbi. He had no college degree. He was an ordinary kid. He was the son of Mary, which implied that he was not the son of Joseph. He seemed to be an upstart and they took offense at him.
Should we blame them? How often do we look for God in the stupendous and gloriously magnificent and miss God in the ordinary? We call unexpected disasters acts of God, but we do not recognize in the regularity of a heartbeat or in a good night’s sleep acts of God. Do we not miss God in the ordinary just as the citizens of Nazareth did?
The irony of how the people of Capernaum accepted Jesus and his hometown rejected him is not so important as how we react to Jesus. Could this be the reason why we have so much sickness and pandemics, so much division among peoples, so much distress in our world, that we have nor recognized God in the ordinariness of life? Have we forgotten to see God everywhere, even in the little things, even in others who disagree with us? Have we not grown accustomed to seeing only ourselves? Do I see myself in all these questions?
Perhaps we should reflect, not on Jesus coming back to his own town, but on Jesus coming to our town, to us.