The Jews in Jesus' hometown had difficulty in accepting Him as a prophet. Being an agent of imagination, Jesus had to face their hard-headedness and allow the text to explode into new meaning rather than stringently maintain the integrity of it as the 'scribes' did in his time. There is a radical distinction to be made between faith and our formal ways of being religious. St Paul connects with this when he affirms that "LOVE is the only way to revelation". It is no use being eloquent or having the gift of prophecy or understanding all the mysteries, if LOVE is absent. It is only LOVE that opens the way to God to reveal His presence in our lives. Without LOVE nothing is revealed to our eyes of faith, and without revelation religion is merely external practice. But Faith is never projected in the past; it always opens new horizons for future promises to come true. Faith without love turns people into fanatics.
