Jesus returns to his home town in the company of his disciples. On the sabbath day, as was his right, he began teaching in the synagogue. His listeners, who all knew him since he was a child, are staggered at the way he speaks. "Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him and these miracles that are worked through him?" He had no more education than any of his fellow-villagers. He is "only" a carpenter, whose family they know well. And, because they (thought they) knew him so well, they could not accept him. This, of course, is the irony of the whole situation. They did not know him at all. Jesus says, "A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations, and in his own house." An experience all too familiar in our own day. The trap of familiarity is one we can all fall into very easily. How many times have we failed to recognise the voice of Jesus speaking to us because the person is someone we meet every day, a person we may not like or despise? But God can and does talk to us through all kinds of people, Catholic or not, relative, friend, colleague, our own children, total stranger, educated, uneducated...