Reflections on Scripture | Memorial of Saint John Bosco, Priest

Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

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.

Reflection

What Jesus is trying to say in this gospel, is that there is something about the Ministry of Jesus that is very ordinary, meaning that Jesus did not come in some mysterious, mystical way.

He was born of a woman. He grew up like the rest of them, slowly growing in wisdom and understanding. They remember him at so many parties and festivals or whatever. He was just one of the ordinary people. And for that ordinary person to be giving the kind of wisdom that he shared with people just didn't make any sense to them.

And it's the same with us. God comes to us and works through us in our ordinariness, our imperfection. He uses us as his instrument of resonating his love to other people. And we do it not because we are perfect or have reached some high level of being a lover and a forgiver and a good person. No, he does it through our ordinariness.

Closing Prayer

Father, your beauty is in your humanity, your honesty, your ability to be approached, your emotional life that is responsive to people's pain. All of this is the natural way in which you see your work being done in the world by each of us, through our ordinariness you do extraordinary work, and we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kyle Cross