Today's readings are here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/020112.cfm
"They said, 'Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands'....And they took offense at him."
Jesus' townspeople were so close to faith, yet they were so far. They confessed that Jesus had extraordinary wisdom and that he performed miracles. Yet, because they had known him since he was a boy, they were not able to get past Christ's humanity and see his divinity. The things they confessed about Jesus pointed to his divine identity; but I guess, in their case, familiarity bred contempt and led them to unbelief.
A similar thing can happen to us. When we read the Gospels, we hear Jesus' wisdom and see the miracles he performed. In addition, we picture him, in our mind's eye, as a man; there is no other way for us to imagine him. We must keep in mind, however, that Jesus' wisdom and miracles point to the fact that he is God. He is fully human; but first and foremost, he is a divine person, that is, the second person of the Trinity.
Keeping Jesus' divine identity in mind is important for us because our hearts crave for God; and in Jesus the man, we can "see" and "touch" the God whom we cannot see and touch, and for whom our hearts long.
May God help us to cling to our Lord with the faith that he is fully God and fully human.
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