Matthew 13:54-58

We have a short Gospel reading today, and yet five questions are asked, one after the other. Asking questions is an important way to grow in our faith. Our faith is surrounded by mystery, so we will never run out of questions to ask. As we try to grow closer and closer to God, we will have questions every step of the way. Having lots of questions about faith is healthy and can make our faith stronger.

…a bit like the man in our painting. Titled 'The Bookworm', the man we see, is consulting book after book, avid and hungry for knowledge and answers to all the questions that pop up in his head. The title of the work is slightly derisive. Calling someone a bookworm can be sarcastic, as to describe someone who is bookish but maybe somewhat unrealistic in day-to-day life. Note how the man stands at the top of a ladder without any handrails, a precarious, dangerous position. He is reading a book with one hand, with another book open in his right hand, a third under his arm, and a fourth one between his knees. A ray of sunlight is beaming through where the man is reading. He is enlightened, literally! In the top left corner, we can see the title section of that part of the library: Metaphysics...

The man depicted in our painting by Carl Spitzweg (a German Romanticist painter), is seeking answers to all the questions he has, consulting books in the library. However, in today's Gospel, the questions that were being asked to Jesus were not meant to find the actual answers or to bring the questioners closer to God. No, the questions asked were to challenge Jesus, to trick Him... and the questioners would reject any answers already before any answers were given. They questioned Jesus... but already rejecting Him in their hearts.