THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (CYCLE B)

Today the Church celebrates : St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, Priest (1502-1539)

Gospel, Mk 6:1-6a

¹ Leaving that district, he went to his home town, and his disciples accompanied him.

² 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?

³ 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.

⁴ And Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is despised only in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house';

⁵ and he could work no miracle there, except that he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them.

⁶ He was amazed at their lack of faith. He made a tour round the villages, teaching.

Commentary of the day Saint Symeon the New Theologian (c.949-1022), Greek monk Catecheses, III, 19 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth; cf SC 113, p.165f.)

Believing in Jesus today

Many people never stop saying - I have heard them myself - "If only we had lived in the days of the apostles, and been counted worthy to gaze upon Christ as they did, we should have become holy like them." Such people do not realize that the Christ who spoke then and the Christ who speaks now throughout the whole world is one and the same... The position now is not the same as it was then, but our situation now, in the present day, is very much better. It leads us more easily to a deeper faith and conviction than seeing and hearing him in the flesh would have done. Then he appeared to the uncomprehending as a man of lowly station: now he is proclaimed to us as true God. Then in his body he associated with tax collectors and sinners and ate with them: now he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, and is never in any way separated from him... Then even those of lowliest condition held him in contempt. They said: «Is not this the son of Mary, and of Joseph the carpenter?» (Mk 6,3; Jn 6,42) Now kings and rulers worship him as Son of the true God, and himself true God... Then he was thought to be mortal and corruptible like the rest of humankind. He was no different in appearance from other men. The formless and invisible God, without change or alteration, assumed a human form and showed himself to be a normal human being. He ate, he drank, he slept, he sweated, and he grew weary. He did everything other people do, except that he did not sin. For anyone to recognize him in that human body, and to believe that he was the God who made heaven and earth and everything in them was very exceptional... It is certain, therefore, that anyone who now hears Christ cry out daily through the holy gospels and proclaim the will of his blessed Father, but does not obey him with fear and trembling and keep his commandments: it is certain that such a person would have refused to believe in him then.