First Reading: (Ezek 2:2-5)

 

When the Lord spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels, who have rebelled against me; they and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The people also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them; and you shall say to them, `Thus says the Lord God.’ And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that there has been a prophet among them.

 

Ps 122

R./ Our eyes are on the Lord till he shows us his mercy.

 

Second Reading: (2 Cor 12:7-10) To keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weakness­es, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

 

Gospel: (Mk 6:1-6)

 

Jesus went to his own coun­try; and his disciples followed him. And on the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue; and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offence at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief.

 

Reflection:

When Jesus returns to his own hometown after a successful mission elsewhere, the people fail to recognize and accept him.They could not imagine of Jesus, a carpenter’s son, one among them teaches them about God. Jesus response is the familiar quote, ‘no prophet is accepted in his own hometown’. The people of Nazareth see only a carpenter, only a son of Mary, only another one of the village children who has grown up and returned for a visit. God has identified too closely with the world for the world to see him, too closely with the town of Nazareth for it to recognize in Jesus the Son of God. Humanity wants something other than what God gives. The greatest obstacle to faith is not the failure of God to act but the unwillingness of the human heart to accept the God who condescends to us. Do we await a God who comes to us in an extraordinary manner and therefore fail to perceive his presence in the ordinariness of our lives?