Again the problem of familiarity

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

“A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country.” This is Christ’s indictment against the people of his own place who, instead of being amazed and thankful for having among them not only a very special person but the very son of God, found Christ too much for them, and were in fact scandalized by him.

This is what familiarity is all about and what it produces. As an adage would put it, familiarity breeds contempt. It is the state of getting too accustomed to God and to his goodness such that we would not feel the urge anymore to thank and praise him for everything that we have and enjoy, since all these things come from him.

It is a very common danger to us, and is at bottom a result of letting simply our senses, feelings and our other ways of purely human estimation to guide us rather than our faith, and its necessary companions of hope and charity.

Instead of being amazed and thankful for having among them not only a very special person but the very son of God, Christ’s townmates found him too much for them, and were in fact scandalized by him. That is why Christ refused to do many miracles there.

We have to be more aware of this danger of familiarity and install the necessary defenses against it. More than that, we have to aggressively cultivate the art of always being amazed at God and at all his works. That should be the proper state for us to be in.

We have to understand, though, that this abiding state of amazement that we should try to develop is not a matter simply of sensations. Of course, it would be good if we can always feel amazed and in awe. But given the limitations of our bodily organism, we cannot expect that to happen all the time.

For this to happen, we should always feel the need to renew and purify our love for God and others. That’s simply because of the tension between our nature and our supernatural goal, not to mention our present wounded human condition that is prone to temptation and sin and to all kinds of weaknesses. We unavoidably have to contend with these conditions in our earthly life.

We can always start with good intentions and the best of our efforts in anything that we do. But if we do not constantly renew and purify our love for God and neighbour that should inspire all our actions, we simply cannot go the distance.

Somewhere along the way, our energy will weaken, our motives will get warped, our objectives will get displaced. We should be realistic and humble enough to acknowledge this fact of life and do something about it. In this life, the law that we ought to follow is to always renew and purify our love for God and neighbour.

Our attitude should be that we just have to begin and begin again. We have to learn how to renew ourselves, or how to have another conversion since conversion is going to be a lifelong necessity for us.

This is how we can distance ourselves from the constant threat of familiarity and complacency. What we need to do is to continue, without let up, having to begin and begin again. This is a practical law of life that we should apply in our daily affairs.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com