From the Gospel acclamation: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 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 Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
The Gospel readings for the past week reveal the necessity of faith in encountering Christ. The paralyzed man brought to Jesus is healed immediately. After Thomas sees Jesus with his own eyes, Jesus says to him, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” And in last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus raises Jairus’s daughter from the dead, saying to Jairus: “Don’t be afraid; just have faith.” In today’s reading, as Jesus encounters his own people—friends, neighbors, and family—Mark tells us that because of their lack of faith, “he was not able to perform any mighty deed there.” The people of Nazareth and its surroundings have discounted Jesus as the Messiah, the same child of Joseph and Mary they watched grow into adulthood. Jesus is amazed at their lack of faith.
God, help me remember and take in the last words from the Gospel: “He was amazed at their lack of faith.” I don’t want to be numbered among those whom Jesus sees in this way. Yet, I often am among them. What does it take, Lord, to recognize that left to my own initiative, I lack faith sufficient for you to work mighty deeds, let alone necessary ones? Despite the revelations and knowledge Saint Paul held, he understood complete dependence on you. “My grace is sufficient for you,” you said to him, “for power is made perfect in weakness.” With the certainty of your grace, Lord, help me keep my eyes fixed on you. “For when I am weak,” as Paul says, “then I am strong.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.