Reading of the holy gospel according to Mark 6,1-6:
At that time, it was Jesus to his people in the company of his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue. The crowds who heard him were amazed and asked, “Where does he get all this? What is this?” wisdom Is this the one you were shown? And these miracles of his hands? Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mariabrother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And do not his sisters live with us here?” And this seemed scandalous to them. Jesus He said to them, “A prophet is not despised except in his own country, among his relatives, and in his own house.” He could not perform any miracle there, but only healed a few sick laying his hands on them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith. And he went about the surrounding villages teaching. Lord’s word.
It is a pity that Jesus continue today, as in those days, doing more miracles among strangers than among acquaintances, converting those who did not know him more easily than friends; so much familiarity caused estrangement at the same time Jesus and he consoled himself by thinking that only among his own people is the prophet despised. To us, however, this may not even surprise us; it seems normal to us that those who know us best doubt us the most; coexistence and closeness more easily expose the faults and excesses of any person. Jesus. That is why we are inclined to understand and excuse his fellow citizens. Not so Jesus, who was surprised by their lack of faith.
We also think we know everything about Jesus And we too are no longer surprised by anything that is told to us about him. And even if his teaching continues to draw our attention at times because of its radical nature, we will continue to answer that there is nothing new that someone we know so well can tell us. It is true that we are surprised by those miracles that others say his hands have performed, but the fact that he does not repeat them with us takes away credibility; we cannot believe that the hands of a worker, of a normal man, hands like ours, can do what we cannot… our familiarity with Jesus, our knowledge of him, is taking away our reasons to trust him. And, like them, one day we paid for our incredulity with the absence of wonders in our Christian existence.
And our Christian life is filled with distrust: God disappoints us, only because we insist on making him to the measure of our knowledge; his hands do not work miracles for us, because we cannot imagine him greater than what fits in our head, more good than our heart is, we do not give him room in our head, nor in our heart. Deep down, we do not have enough faith in him because we take him for granted, nor do we trust him very much because he is too familiar to us.
Let us take the Word of God seriously, then: knowing too much about Jesus can be an obstacle to believing in him and accepting his teachings; taking him for granted can prevent us from knowing his miracles and experiencing his power. Just because we have always been Christians does not mean that we are better prepared to be believers today. It would be a shame if, like those closest to Jesus, we one day lost our faith simply because we did not appreciate it enough… A long time ago a group of young people sang to us priests: “Priests speak to us about God, the poor speak to Him.” Could we also fall so low?
Enjoy your encounter with God this week…with your family!!!
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