Mark 6, 1-6:
Sunday, July 4, 2021 (14th T O B).
On this Sunday St. Mark tells us that Jesus was in his own country, and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue and took the opportunity to teach. He was not very successful, for although they admired his words and his miraculous healings, his relatives and countrymen were not able to recognise the person before them. They distrusted him. If he had presented himself with characteristics more in accordance with what they had imagined, they might have recognised him. Instead they only wondered who is this man? The prophecy of the old man Simeon is being fulfilled: “This man is set so that many in Israel will fall or rise up; he will be a sign of contradiction. For the people, anything was valid, except accepting a “simple carpenter”. To accept him meant to accept his message as well, and this carried with it a life commitment.
To have faith is to have complete trust in another person. Belief goes by way of the intellect, faith by way of the heart. Sometimes we think we know others, but we do not know what is inside them, and so we doubt them. He who does not open his heart to others cannot discover all the good that is in them. He misses the best in others. He has no eyes to see that among us there are those who make God’s love present. They are prophets in their own land, even if it is difficult for us to recognise them.
Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf
