Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time at Mississippi Abbey
One of Aesop’s fables is about a Lion and a Fox: “When the Fox first saw the King of Beasts it was terribly afraid and hid in the woods. Next time when the Lion passed by the Fox watched at a safe. The third time they came close to one another, the Fox went straight up to the Lion and passed the time of day with him, asking when he should have the pleasure of seeing him again. They parted without much ceremony” because familiarity breeds contempt.
The people of Nazareth thought knew Jesus so well no a reports of mighty deeds could change their minds. They didn’t even call Jesus by name, referring to him only as “this man.” Familiarity breeds contempt.
But it doesn’t have to. Without familiarity you can’t breed anything. Or, as Mark Twain famously once said, “Familiarity breeds contempt and children.” The twelve apostles were the intimate disciples and friends of Jesus. One of them fell into contempt, the rest bore fruit thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. May our loving familiarity with Jesus grow day by day until we have the pleasure of seeing him forever in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, along with innumerable angels in festal gathering.