July 7th 2024. Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mark 6:1-6

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

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GOSPEL                                  Mark 6:1-6

Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised- in his own country among his own relations and in his own house'; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

SUMMARY

Jesus teaches in the synagogue of his home town and is rejected. This happens at Nazareth, the place of faith, the place where Mary gave the most perfect response to the word of the Lord – “I am the servant of the Lord. Be it done onto me according to your word”. Jesus cannot perform great works here because the people do not believe and consequently do not open the door of their hearts to allow Jesus to work. Jesus is manifesting his identity, his greatness and his mission, but he is confronted with a petty attitude that only considers him in terms of mundane, horizontal things. He is placed in a box: he is a carpenter, a relative of such and such, the man whose mother became pregnant before she ought to. They are saying, in other words, that they know everything there is to know about this man. The truth is that Jesus is much more than they know. He is the son of Mary, yes, but also the Son of God. A man cannot be reduced to his homeland. The first person called by God, Abraham, was called to leave his own land. We are all called to be much more than our homeland, our job, our talents, our family connections. These connections are there, but they are not everything. If we wish to have a prophetic vision of who we are, then we need to confront these connections and not be bound by them. If we wish to be men or women of God, then we need to be more than our banal biology. This is exactly the definition of faith, to believe beyond biology, to see beyond the material composition of things. We are more than our appearance, more than what we have done. As our marvelous Pope of the youth, John Paul II, said, we are the work of God. Man is not the sum total of his sins and weaknesses, but the immense love that God expresses toward him and man’s response of “Yes” to that love. We can say yes or no to God. To say yes, we must go beyond biology and homeland, infancy and family. We must go beyond those things that make us banal and mediocre. We are all called to greatness for we are all called to paradise and to live our lives right now in the light of Paradise.

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