Gospel Reflection July 4 – Msgr. Hendricks
Sunday, July 4
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 6: 1 -6
Gospel:
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 Joses 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.
Gospel Reflection:
Independence Day stirs up many emotions, prayers, and thoughts as we as a country recover from the pandemic of 2019-20 and 2021. Life changes so quickly that we sometimes struggle to keep up. What remains constant however is the delights of our freedoms as a people and nation. We need to celebrate and rejoice in that blessing as so many others in our world do not share in the same freedoms given to us and so often taken for granted.
In the gospel today Jesus, having been praised earlier for His healings and miracles, now comes back to his hometown, the place where everyone knew his name and his family. Hoping to find comfort there and welcome, he is roundly criticized and rejected. The question arose, “Who does He think He is”? His rejection by the hometown audience must have been stinging to him and he leaves there without performing all He might have planned.
The moral of the story is, we do not have to look very far for people whom we know have wisdom to share and kindness to offer. It is Jesus, the Christ who can fulfill our needs but not necessarily all of our wants.
We are asked each day and each week at Mass to put our trust and faith in Him. We are asked to draw near the familiar Jesus who knows us through and through.
The freedom He gives us in knowing Him is lasting and the more we know the more we want to follow Him even when times get tough.
Enjoy Independence Day and enjoy the presence of the Risen Lord and the freedom He brings and the blessing He has bestowed in placing us here.
Msgr. Hendricks