Photo Caption: Tim Irwin teaches at Peoria Notre Dame High School, where he chairs the Theology Department. He is a member of St. Mark’s Parish in Peoria.

By: By Tim Irwin

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 8

Ezekiel 2:2-5; Psalm 123:1-2,2,3-4; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6a

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman in 1932. In the process, they captured what people seem to have in mind when they think about divine power. Virtually impervious to attack and sporting an array of offensive options, Superman seems at first blush to be an archetype for a god. Perhaps that’s one reason why the character still resonates with Americans 80 years after its debut.

The 1971 off-Broadway musical “Godspell” by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak made the connection more specifically Christian by costuming their rendition of Jesus in a Superman shirt.

The readings for the Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary time invite us to a more nuanced understanding of the power of the divine. God explains divine power to Ezekiel in the first reading.

“Son of Man, I am sending you to the Israelites,” says the Lord. “Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.” Ezekiel may not change their minds and convert their hearts, but that’s OK because the point is this: “They shall know that a prophet has been among them.” They will see Ezekiel experiencing divine power as a faith-filled messenger of God and that will be their invitation to repent.

St. Paul echoes Ezekiel: “I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul’s experience of divine power more than compensated for any superhuman powers he lacked.

Jesus most fully reveals divine power. In today’s account from the Gospel of Mark, those to whom he was preaching were astonished by him: “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?”

And they took offense at him. The Gospel tells us that “so disconcerting was their lack of faith that Jesus could perform no mighty deeds there.” Nothing super happened during his visit home. Jesus acknowledges the problem when he says, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”

FAITH MAKES US STRONG
Superman doesn’t seem to care whether or not people have faith. Produce heat vision or icy breath on demand and never mind whether or not you believe. Herein lies one of the differences between being fictionally superhuman and factually divine. Human power focuses on the ability to command outcomes in the universe; divine power focuses on the ability to transcend the universe into eternal life and that’s something not even Siegel and Shuster imagined that Superman could do.

Ezekiel’s willingness to address the hard-hearted Israelites and St. Paul’s perseverance in the face of trials gives a prophetic witness to divine power. Jesus could have smashed the synagogue and the uppity kinfolk, but he didn’t because he is his Father’s Son. Divine power is an invitation to love God, not fear him, so leveling the old neighborhood would have sent the wrong message.

This week’s readings remind us that strength is not about being faster than a speeding bullet or more powerful than a locomotive. Changing the course of mighty rivers or leaping tall buildings with a single bound seems overrated. Strength comes from genuinely living our Catholic faith even when we’re faced with superhuman obstacles because in so doing we will experience the divine power that will ultimately carry us into eternal life.