Gospel: Matthew 13: 54-59
Today's Gospel portion notes that Jesus was unable to perform many miracles in his home town because of their lack of faith. Familiarity often breeds contempt, or indifference. We often take for granted things in our life that we have ready access to, and only when they are gone do we come to appreciate the special gift, the miracle that had been in our presence all along. That phenomenon is part of today's lesson.
But there is more. The people of Nazareth state that they know Jesus, in which case - what need have they of faith? And if faith be not needed, then there is no room for the miraculous. For knowledge produces certitude, leaving no room for doubt. Yet, faith exists only when doubt is both possible and present. It is the presence of doubt itself that makes faith possible.
For too long we have promoted an apologetics that seeks absolute certitude, attempting to remove all doubts about all known subjects. In the process we have destroyed faith, making it an impossibility by the very criteria we have erected. If we seek a cause for atheism and secularism in our world, we might find our very selves as the primary cause in more ways than one.
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