There is custom that a newly ordained priest returns to his home parish to celebrate his first Mass. I was ordained in 2005 in Chicago and right after my ordination I traveled back to Poland, to my home parish in Krakow, to say my first Mass there. I can’t tell you how nervous I was and not because I was saying one of my first masses, but because I was coming back to people that I grew up with, they knew me well. They knew my family, they knew what kind of student I was, they knew my nicknames (not sharing here), and they remember my youthful crazy ideas and the mistakes I made. But this time I was coming back as an ordained priest to celebrate the Mass and to preach! What can I tell them? What kind of wisdom do I have to share with them? They know me in and out? They were happy to see me and were proud of me being a priest, but I had these thoughts in my mind -- what can I tell them? That’s why I can somehow relate to Jesus’ experience of coming back to His native place, to his folks. Unfortunately, they were not able to accept Him because they thought they knew Him too well. We all know Jesus too well. We know His parents, we know where He came from, we know His teachings and prayers, we grew up with Him. That’s why we need to be careful not to get too used to Him or even reject Him, because we are somehow bored with Him. “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.”
