Photo Credit Pat Skowronek Pexels

By Jane Korvemaker

There was a time and place in my life when I did not like the parish I was in. Many members seemed arrogant or disinterested, the priest seemed incompetent in managing the parish’s affairs, and it seemed someone was looking for something from me at every Mass. It was hard to enter into prayer when the dysfunction of the parish seemed to seep into everything.

Recently I was watching season three of The Chosen, specifically the episode in which the story from Luke 4: 16-21 is depicted. In this passage, Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth and proclaims a passage from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue, then announces that it is being fulfilled even as they hear him speak it.

The result is rather tumultuous. The people scoff at him, “Isn’t he the carpenter’s son?” Jesus then references two stories where God did not heal his chosen people, the Israelites, but instead chose to heal foreigners. He indicated by analogy that he could not share his miracles in Nazareth. It was ultimately because of their unbelief in him.

How Is Jesus Present?

I wonder now at my own complacency to Jesus, like those in Nazareth. I scoffed at my parish situation and scathingly thought about how many others at the parish seemed to get what they want/need, and yet there I was, struggling.

This Gospel passage makes it seem so black and white. Jesus wasn’t walking around preaching in my parish. It’d be easier if he were right there in front of me, but he was not.

And yet here I find a temptation to fit Jesus into one or two well-known ways of experiencing him. If I’m only really open to one of these, I miss out on an important way to encounter Christ.

Most people could easily point to the Eucharist. As Catholics, we believe that Jesus is truly present in the bread and wine through the work of the Holy Spirit. He is present to us just as much as if he were standing at the altar. More broadly, all the sacraments mediate God’s invisible presence and reality in a visible form.

But there is more.

Jesus is also encountered as the Word of God through Scriptures. The importance of encountering God in Scripture is highlighted by the fact that the first half of every Mass centres on the reading of Scripture. It is through spending time in the sacred words that we come to be touched by the Word. This, too, can be an encounter with Jesus’ true presence.

There is also another way that Jesus’ presence is truly made known to us. It’s often forgotten, dismissed, or played down: his presence in each of us. We have been baptised into Christ’s Body. We have been marked indelibly in our baptism and we are a part of him, invisibly, in a very real way. To minimize this diminishes Christ’s presence to us.

My Own Unbelief

Back to Jesus and his Nazareth community: they refused to believe that there was more to him than their familiarity with him. Because of this, he could perform only a few miracles there (which we hear in Mark 6:5-6).

I can ask myself now, was my complacency in the parish due to believing Christ wasn’t truly present in each member of his body? How often did I refuse to make eye contact with others at the church, or at the end of Mass rush out so that I did not have to encounter those who may have made demands of me?

“I mean, I can’t be expected to really get to know those people; I’m only here for the Mass and the Eucharist.” And yet there I was, wondering why no miracles were happening in my own life; acting as if my unbelief in Christ’s real presence in his Body had no significant impact on my life.

I’d like to say that I’ve completely changed, but the reality is that I still struggle with this. I’ve become more aware of the temptation to deny his presence in the members of his Body, but I’m not an example for others yet. Each time I bring my small failures before him in confession, I encounter his love, mercy, and encouragement to get up and try again. And I remain hopeful that the more I can encounter others as Christ, the more his miracles will be revealed in the parish community where I am now, transforming us from Nazareth into …dare I believe… the Upper Room?

What a beautiful testament to the Holy Spirit this will be! Miraculous indeed.

Jane Korvemaker is a B.C. transplant who lives in Saskatoon with her husband, three children, and mischievous cat. She holds a Certificate in Culinary Arts, Bachelor of Theology, Certificate in Youth Ministry Studies, and is a Level Two Catechist in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. She hopes to one day find the perfect pairing of bacon, beer, and Balthasar. She semi-regularly writes at ajk2.ca