Wednesday February 3

FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?

 

Introduction

      The author of Hebrews encourages those who had to flee from Jerusalem for the sake of following Jesus. Yes, their trials are hard to bear, but God loves them. He is a Father who corrects and tests his children out of love, that their faith may become more mature through the sufferings and difficulties that are part of life and of our being Christian. Do we too accept this?

      A man or woman like us from down the street, whose parents we know, how dare he or she speak God’s word to us – if it is God’s word? Jesus, the town carpenter whom everyone knew, how could he work miracles and where did he get this strange message? The Church with all its faults and the priest who is not any better than we are, how dare they speak to us in the name of God? God speaks through ordinary people. God’s word and message are stronger than the weak messengers he sends to speak his prophetic word. The people of Nazareth did not accept Jesus. Do we accept those who speak out for what is right and good?

 

Opening Prayer

God, our Father without equal,
your Son, your living Word, came among us
as one of our own, our own flesh and blood.
Dispose us to welcome him always
and to listen to what he tells us,
also when his word upsets and disturbs us.
And give us too, the courage
to pass on his word to one another,
that it may liberate us all
and lead us to you as your one people.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

 

Reading 1: Heb 12:4-7, 11-15

Brothers and sisters:
In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:

My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges.

Endure your trials as “discipline”;
God treats you as his sons.
For what Ason” is there whom his father does not discipline?
At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,
yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.
Make straight paths for your feet,
that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.

Strive for peace with everyone,
and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
See to it that no one be deprived of the grace of God,
that no bitter root spring up and cause trouble,
through which many may become defiled.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 103:1-2, 13-14, 17-18a

(see 17) The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him,
For he knows how we are formed;
he remembers that we are dust.
R. The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
But the kindness of the LORD is from eternity
to eternity toward those who fear him,
And his justice toward children’s children
among those who keep his covenant.
R. The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

 

Alleluia: Jn 10:27

Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: Mk 6:1-6

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
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!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.

 

Intercessions:

–         That our Church may keep listening to the prophets among us, for the Spirit speaks through them, we pray:

–         That God’s people may keep listening to the words Jesus speaks in our assemblies as a word spoken to each of us today, we pray:

–         That in the silence of the voiceless, God’s people may hear the voice of the Lord crying out for justice and compassion, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
you ask of us to accept with faith
your word spoken by your messengers
and above all by your living Word, Jesus Christ.
Make us truly recognize and welcome
the humble coming of your Son
in these simple signs of bread and wine.
Let his word and that of his prophets
take root in us and change us
into a community in which prevail
the love, the justice and the forgiveness
of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord God, loving Father,
you let us share in your strength
through Jesus, your Son in our midst.
Let his word that we have heard
come true in our lives
and give us the courage to proclaim it
without false shame or fear
to anyone willing to listen.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Lord.

 

Blessing

We have heard Jesus: let his word not fall on deaf ears. And may we not keep it for ourselves, but pass it on as a challenge to create together a community in which justice and love rule with the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

“They took offence at him.” What was his offence? His background was the same as theirs; he was just like them: “Is not this the carpenter?” But he had not remained in the role the village had assigned to him. Villages can be intensely conservative places. The word ‘conservative’ is in itself a good word: to conserve is to keep intact, to guard. But everything depends on what one is trying to conserve: the best or the worst. Because of the human capacity for self-deceit, we can use a fine word to make mean things look good.
The smaller the society, the more controlling this narrow spirit. “Beneath the charm of the rural town or village, there often lurks a lethal intolerance.” Nazareth was such a place. It is very hard to make any headway with people who knew your father and mother.

They see you all your life as the child you were, even when you are a middle-aged man or woman. They see where you came from and they remember all your youthful mistakes. If they are villagers they also want to make sure you are not getting above yourself; “who does he think he is?” This is a sort of envy, or perhaps something more primitive: a tribal spirit. It tries to destroy you, or at least to discredit you, if you are not just like everyone else. How often do we find such attitudes and reactions in our church communities? How often have we dealt with others with our prejudices

The terrible reality is that this village narrowness, this belittlement, works. It tied Jesus’s hands: “he could work no miracles there” (v.5). It is a frightful thought that we have the ability to prevent miracles. Think of the occasions where the miracles that could have happened in our Church, in our parish, in our community did not happen because of our prejudices and narrow-mindedness; because of our refusal to accept and appreciate our brothers and sisters for what they are.

He was only a carpenter and the son of a carpenter, and the villagers wanted to keep him in his place. But elsewhere the gospel says “he broke through their midst and went his way” (Lk 4:30). We have to break through the midst of many hurdles in order to become adult Christians. Yes, Jesus said we must be like children: we must have their qualities of simplicity, honesty, freshness.