Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Lord, Open our Hearts

Sometimes the hardest place for God to work
is not in the world…
it’s in the places we already know too well.

Our homes.
Our parish.
Our routines.
Even our own hearts.

Jesus goes back to Nazareth.
He teaches.
He heals.
He speaks with authority.

And the people say,
“Wait a minute… isn’t this just the carpenter?
Don’t we know His family?
Didn’t He grow up right here?”

And Mark says something painful:
He could work no mighty deed there… because of their lack of faith.

Not because Jesus changed.
Not because God’s power was gone.
But because their hearts were closed.

They thought they already knew Him.

That’s the danger of familiarity.

We can come to Mass week after week…
hear the same words…
see the same altar…
receive the same Eucharist…

and slowly, without realizing it,
we stop being moved by what is holy.

We hear Scripture,
but forget God is speaking.

We receive the Eucharist,
but forget Who we are receiving.

We pass the tabernacle,
but forget Someone is truly there.

We dip our fingers into the baptismal font
and make the sign of the cross—
but forget we are touching the waters of our own baptism.

Not in a bad way.
Just in a tired way.

We stop expecting God to do something new.

In the first reading, King David falls into something similar.
He orders a census — not because God asked,
but because he wants control, security, numbers.

And afterward, his heart is struck.
He realizes he trusted in himself instead of God.

And when the consequences come, David says something beautiful:
“Let us fall into the hand of the Lord,
for His mercy is great.”

That’s the difference.

David repents.
Nazareth resists.

One heart opens.
The other stays closed.

So the question for us today is simple:

Have I become too familiar with Jesus
to be amazed by Him?

Do I still expect Him to speak to me…
to change me…
to heal something in me?

Or have I quietly stopped expecting anything to change?

Jesus did not stop being God in Nazareth.
They simply stopped letting Him be God for them.

Today, He stands here again.
In His Word.
On this altar.
In this Eucharist.

The same Jesus.

The only thing that can limit what He does
is not His power —
it is our openness.

So today, let’s not be Nazareth.

Let’s open our hearts to the Lord
who is about to come to us in the Eucharist.