Dear Parish Family,

In the 8th century before Christ's birth, Isaiah prophesied that "a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit" (Isaiah 11:1). The word "branch" in Hebrew is netzer, the same root word from which the name "Nazareth" comes. Some historians have suggested that Nazareth was named as "the town of the branch," meaning "the place where the Branch of David lives." In 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia decreed that the Jews exiled in Babylon should be allowed to return to Judea, a process that continued for the next 400-500 years. Around 100 BC, one clan from the line of David returned to Israel and established the town of Nazareth. They preferred to begin life in Nazareth away from the David’s capital Jerusalem or birthplace Bethlehem, to avoid suspicion any one from their clan was aspiring to the throne of David, now occupied by new non-Davidic dynasty, the Hasmoneans.

Imagine Jesus returning to his village after many months of absence, during which a lot of reports had reached Nazareth about the turning of water into wine at Cana (probably some of them will have witnessed that first hand), miracles and cures at Capernaum (20 miles away). Nazareth might had a population of around 200 persons, who would have been related to Jesus through family ties. Their familiarity with Jesus deprived them of the sense of wonder to discover the ‘prophet, priest and king’ in their midst and would not dare to attribute any semblance to ‘divinity’ to their own kith and kin.

Mark recounts two major setbacks at this event: Jesus is unable to perform any miracles and he is amazed that his own people lacked faith which was essential for any miracle to happen. This event has a deep significance for us who might be tempted to deride the sensibility of the Nazareth folk. Our Catholic Catechism explains the meaning of the word “faith” as a personal act—the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself (Catechism, 166).

So faith refers to an interaction between oneself and Jesus, a relationship steeped in trust and love. If a husband says to his wife, “I have faith in you,” and if he means it, and if his wife says the same, then they are working toward real love. The same goes for the faith we are talking about here. The deepest meaning of faith is this: to have a mutual relationship with God. That is, to receive God's love and respond to it. A failure in faith is like closing or even locking the doors to our hearts. If this makes some sense to you, then you will see why Jesus said “your faith has saved you.” If faith is a word for a person's relation to Jesus, the curing happens because they have a real, bilateral relationship in trust and love.

Jesus was amazed at his village’s lack of faith. His relationship to the people of his home town seems to have been a non-relationship. He could not force the two-way bond called “faith” upon them. He offered it, they refused. No wonder he could not “perform any mighty deed there.” Do we pray for miracles? May be we need to work on our relation with our God so that we are ready for miracles.

Fr. Tom Kunnel. C.O.