14th Ordinary Sunday (Cycle B)

Ezek 2:2-5               2Cor 12:7-10               Mk 6:1-6

There is a Greek mythology about the character called Procrustes whose name meant ‘the stretcher’. He was an iron smith. With the best of his ability he made an iron bed. He kept a house by the side of the road where he offered hospitality to passing strangers, who were invited in for a pleasant meal and a night’s rest in his very special bed. Procrustes described it as having the unique property that its length exactly matched whomsoever lay down upon it. He had very strange method of achieving that property when his guest laid on the bed. As soon as the guest laid down Procrustes went to work upon him, stretching him on the rack if he was too short for the bed and chopping off his legs if he was too long. Procrustes continued his reign of terror until he was captured by Theseus, travelling to Athens, who fitted Procrustes to his own bed and thus killed him.

From this mythology, the word ‘Procrustean’ is thus used to describe situations where different lengths or sizes or properties are fitted to an arbitrary standard. This mythology is also told to affirm the impossibility of attaining the universal uniformity. This line of thought fits well in the background of today’s gospel event. Jesus points to the fixed and prejudiced mind of his own people. According to that fixation, they perceived Jesus. Today’s gospel text tells us that they were astonished by his teaching. They said to each other, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him (Mk 6:2-3).

Their astonishment was not an outcome of their positive outlook but it was their expression of non-acceptance due to their prejudice about Jesus. St John in his gospel too observes the same fact thus: He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him (Jn 1:10-11). Sometimes we are no different from Procrustus. We have a set of fixed viewpoints of others and do not accept them and moreover, we do character assassination if they do not fit to our fixed viewpoints. Jesus faced continuous opposition and rejection from his own people due to this reason.

The man of the 20^th century, scientist Albert Einstein used to say: It is easier to break an atom than to break the prejudices. We know that breaking an atom is not so easy. But it is even harder to overcome our fixations and prejudices about others. We find it hard to alter our prejudices and expect others to change themselves as per our fixations. This is an unjustifiable expectation. An interesting story is said to make this point clear

Once there was a king who became sick suddenly. Many doctors were called to diagnose on his sickness but every effort was in vain. As a last effort they decided to surrender to the spiritual power and invited a sage to cure the king. The sage visited the king and said a simple solution for the king to be cured. He said, “Everything the king looks at, should appear green in colour.” Then, he went away. After few days, the sage happened to pass by the king’s palace and wanted to visit the king. As he was about to enter the palace gate, the guard stopped him and poured upon him a bucket of green paint and allowed him inside. The sage was irritated and shocked. As he met the king, he asked the king why such a treatment was given to him. The king said to the sage, “Since you said that whatever I see should appear in green colour, whatever is in front of me is given green coating. Now, I am healthy because of your advice.” The annoyed sage rebuked the king saying, “You foolish king, instead of changing everything around, it is enough that you wear a green spectacle.”

Most often we are like this foolish king. Instead of changing our perspective about others, we expect others to fit to our frame of mind. We do not easily collaborate with those about whom we have prejudices like the people of Nazareth did not cooperate with Jesus Christ. It is easy for us to accept an advice from a book written by an author whom we are not acquainted with. But if the same advice was shared by a person whom we are well-acquainted, we do not easily accept it because of the prejudice we have about that person. In such a situation, we say to ourselves, “What worthiness he or she has to give this piece of advice to me?” Due to these prejudices and fixations, even misunderstanding between two persons occur.

I would like to share a talk delivered by the spiritual mentor, Gaur Gopal Das. Interesting talks by him are available in youtube.com. A teacher was teaching mathematics to a class of 6-year-old students. She asked a boy called Arnav, “Arnav, if I give you 2 mangoes and 2 mangoes, how many will you have?” Arnav said, “5.” The teacher again repeated the question, and still Arnav replied, “5.” The teacher was upset but remembered that Arnav’s mother had said that Arnav does not like mangoes, but he likes strawberries. So, she changed her example, and asked, “If I give you 2 strawberries and 2 strawberries, how many will you have?” Now Arnav said, “4.” The teacher was happy by the change of strategy. Just to confirm that Arnav had understood mathematics rightly, she asked Arnav again, “If I give you 2 mangoes and 2 mangoes, how many will you have?” Arnav said, “5.” The teacher was very annoyed and shouted, “How can 2 and 2 strawberries be 4, and 2 and 2 mangoes be 5?” Arnav replied, “I already have one mango in my bag madam.”

Who was right? Was the teacher wrong? No, because 2 plus 2 is 4. Was Arnav wrong? No, because 2 plus 2 is 4 and one mango in the bag makes it 5. Is it not a fact that all kinds of conflicts come because of the gap between technical rightness and practical or realistic rightness. The teacher was technically right. Technical rightness means to see the obvious, to see what is visible. Arnav was practically and realistically right. Realistic rightness means to see beyond the obvious, to see beyond what appears or visible. Realistic rightness means to see the hidden mango. Very often, all our conflicts come because of the gap between technical rightness and realistic rightness.

Whenever you find that your spouse is not loving you enough, you may be technically right, that he or she may not actually love you that much. But are you, realistically right? Why he or she is not loving you? You child may not be listening to you and technically you are right, that your child is not listening to you. But are you, realistically right? Realistic rightness expects you to see beyond the obvious, why your child is not behaving right.

The next time you see someone not fitting into your definition of what is technically right, please do not be judgmental. Go beyond the obvious and try to look for the hidden mango which will truly help you to understand the person and resolve the conflicting situation that you are in.