Son of man, simply means man. It is an Old Testament figure that later on was used by Jesus to refer to Himself. He used the title together with the image of the being the suffering servant (image from Isaiah) and image of being the Glorious Messiah. 'Son of man' was stated in the bible more than 90 times.
In the 1st Reading, Ezekiel was sent by God inspite of the Israelites hardened hearts. God's love does not waver even when the Israelites were unfaithful to Him. God's unconditional love and presence manifests the very meaning of God's name 'I AM'. It means that He will always be present for His people, I AM. For God, there is no past, there is no future. All things are present for Him. He is the same before, today and tomorrow. In the First Reading, God wants it known that it is He that first calls us because of His Love for us. He makes His Love known and felt even if we don't listen to Him.
In the 2nd Reading, Paul talked about his thorn in the flesh. It might have referred to his sickness, temptations, or concerns. God's grace perfects us in the moment of our weakness. When we are weak, God shines more in us. When we are put into a situation where it seems that there's nothing else that we can do, there are times, when all of a sudden, something comes up. A solution becomes evident, it makes us realize God graceful work. We encounter troubles that seems impossible to get out of, we see the Lord's actions when all of a sudden something comes up that's not of our own doing. It is the Lord! When something bad happens, or when we face apparent failures, at the end, we look again into that situation and we see God's overall plan for all things.
When we find ourselves in that situation, just remember the many events where God showed that He is there for His people . The Lord made great preachers out of fishermen. The Lord has multiplied the loaves and fishes from a just a few of them. The Lord provided fishes for the apostles after many hours of catching nothing. "God makes a way when it seems there is now way" so we can realize His presence in our life.
Jesus united Himself to man even in suffering so that when man is in his low points, God is even more united to him. Grace abounds and is sufficient for us. The Cross shows that Jesus is united to us when we are suffering. Jesus has sanctified every human condition that He went through so that when man experiences them, we are sanctified through them. Jesus as God and man made holy the previously ordinary things that man does and experience including suffering which is resulted because of the effect of man's sins. Through the cross, the means to administer God's justice now is elevated to become God's means for our own holiness. And when we become more united to Him, we become rich even if we're poor because he have Christ. In weakness, we become strong because we share His strength.
In the Gospel, those who knew Jesus before His public ministry were surprised how Jesus acquired His divine knowledge. They knew Him as the son of Mary.
At Jesus' time, it is not common for a man to be identified as the son of a mother. Usually they use the father's relation for identification. This must mean, according to Fr Jun, that Joseph has been dead for a long time at that point of the Gospel story.
Jesus went to the synagogue. What is a synagogue? syn-together, agogein- gain. It is a place for worship, gathering and study. There is no sacrifice done in a synagogue since it is only done in the temple. Many were astonished with Jesus' works but his own people did not accept Him.
Jesus is a rabbi. For a person to be a rabbi, he must be working to provide for himself . Jesus was a carpenter. You have to be 30 yrs old to be a rabbi and that was His age when Jesus started His public ministry.
The Gospel also mentions Christ's brothers and sisters. In the Jewish Traditon, they call cousins as their brothers. Up to now, they don't even have a term for 'cousin'. For them to refer the exact relation as cousins, they'll say 'the son or daughter of the uncle and aunt'. This tradition can be seen in the story of Abraham and his nephew lot. He said that they are brothers.
This is important to know because the Catholic Church proclaims, as a doctrine, that Mary is ever virgin, before, during and after Christ' birth.
Your groupmate
Eric
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