Surprise!

Have you ever experienced being surprised by someone who is very familiar to you?  You were surprised because you didn’t expect this ordinary person could be someone who is so great.

Jesus was well known in Nazareth.  He was too ordinary for them.  They knew His father was a carpenter and they knew that Jesus was one, too.  Thus, it was not easy for them to accept the transformation of Jesus.  From a carpenter who got paid for practicing his trade, to a prophet who performed miracles for free.  To the people in His town, Jesus was just like any one of them, simple and ordinary.  But while Jesus was like all of us in everything, He was not an ordinary mortal.  Jesus was sinless.  There is something beyond ordinary in Him, something that even His own neighbors failed to see.  There was something they had never seen in him:  they never saw the power of God working in Him.

Our life can seem too ordinary to us sometimes.  We may not recognize the voice of God when he calls to us, when he asks for a deeper faith and commitment to him.  We may not recognize him speaking through the example and words of others.  We may not shake off our routine and truly listen to the Word of God.  But we can learn from the surprise the people of Nazareth showed at Jesus’ true identity, as it will help us to be more alert to God’s increasing surprises.

And so, how can we recognize Jesus and His surprises in our lives?  How can we see greatness in the ordinary?  I believe there is one thing necessary.  And that is Purity of Heart.  It is only the pure of heart that can go beyond the ordinary and see the Divine.  As the scripture tells us:

“Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God” (Mt. 5.8)

Only the pure of heart can see the work of God in every flower blooming around us.  Only the pure of heart can see the work of God in the homeless people in the streets.  Only the pure of heart can see God in the simplicity, in the ordinariness, in the routine of our day to day life.

Without the purity of heart, life becomes a burden, and life becomes heavy for us.  But if we are blessed with the purity of heart, we can look and see beyond the ordinary to Jesus Christ.  Beyond the ordinary is the love of God made present in all of us.

We will pray to the Lord for this grace.  For a heart that is pure so that we may be able to look beyond the ordinary and see the wonders of God’s being present among us.  Let us pray to the Lord for a purity of heart so that we can look beyond the ordinary and be surprise at the beauty of God’s love for us.

-- Fr. Joshua