REFLECTIONS TODAY

Since God would send prophets to a rebellious people, Israel, to a nation that has rebelled against him (Ez 2:4), the life of a prophet was never an easy one. In condemning corruption and oppression, idolatry, and wantonness, especially on the part of rulers and the rich, the prophet would become a man of derision, a “disturber of Israel.” 

Elijah was persecuted by King Ahab and his pagan queen Jezebel. Amos was accused of earning his living by prophesying in the royal sanctuary of Bethel. Jeremiah was branded a traitor for saying that God has given over Jerusalem to the Babylonians. 

John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded by the order of Herod Antipas. Comparing himself to previous Hebrew prophets whom the people and their rulers rejected, Jesus intimates his own eventual rejection by his nation. Already in Nazareth, his native place, the people put no faith in him because they think he is just one of their kind. 

The people may as well be sharing the low esteem of them on the part of Nathanael, a friend of Philip who is from another town, Bethsaida: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (Jn 1:46). But in God’s plan of salvation, from nondescript Nazareth would arise a neser, a “branch of David”: the Messiah—Jesus from Nazareth.

First Reading • 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 sons: 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 sons. For what “son” 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.

Gospel • Mark 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.

Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.