4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
All were amazed…

Amazement is a common response to the profound teachings and actions of Jesus in the Gospels.  But amazement is not a positive response to Jesus.  After Jesus rebukes an unclean spirit and casts it out of a man the crowd is amazed.  But they are not changed.

Amazement is reflected in modern speech when something profound and meaningful is witnessed and people respond with: “Cool!” And then walk away.  The profound and meaningful words and actions of Jesus require an equally profound and meaningful response on the part of people.

“Cool” can often serve as an expression of amazement in that it allows one to walk away without being affected.  Ron Rolheiser OMI has written often of amazement in the gospels where it reflects an unconscious transferal of energy through people.  There when people witness the energy of Jesus to heal and feed they are amazed but not changed.  The energy simply becomes the effort to make him king by force thereby securing a comfortable future.

We are amazed by seeing a card trick, an athletic feat or a narrow escape from a fatal car accident recorded by webcam.   But by holding the energy of our experience of Jesus we can begin to respond.  If he can heal and liberate that person, then Jesus could do that to me!  But I may feel more comfortable with my demons and pain than with the uncertainty of liberated future with Jesus.

The energy of our fear sends us deeper and deeper into a maze of avoidance.  But by softening our heart and letting the energy of our avoidance catch up to us we can finally experience that what we have run from all these years is a misinterpretation blown completely out of proportion.

By accepting the energy of our avoidance from Jesus we will recognize that the maze of hiding becomes a labyrinth whose simple path resembles the journey of our life and our process of transformation.

By softening the heart our vocation becomes possible.

By Mark Blom, OMI – Vocations Director – OMI Lacombe Canada