Gospel: Mark 6:1-6

Saint Anthony Zaccaria, priest is not celebrated this year. Anthony Zaccaria (1502-1539) from Cremona, Italy, studied medicine in Padua and practised as a physician for three years. From 1527 he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1528. He mainly worked in hospitals and institutions for the poor, and founded three religious institutes: one for men (the Barnabites); one for women (the Sisters of Saint Paul). While in Vincenza, he popularized for the laity the Forty-hour devotion, solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for the adoration of the faithful.

1st Reading: Ezekiel 2:2-5

To make people aware of their sins God sends Ezekiel to call them to repentance

And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. Their descendants are impudent and stubborn.

I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

2nd Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Paul copes with his “thorn in the flesh” because power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Gospel: Mark 6:1-6

Jesus is rejected by his neighbours in Nazareth. No prophet is honoured among his own people

He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching.

Use it or lose it

The last line of the Gospel is fairly stark. ‘He was amazed at their lack of faith.’ Many would suggest that if Jesus was to come among us again he would be amazed at how Ireland has changed. People living in fear of being attacked in their homes. Violence and murder a daily occurrence. Suicide on the increase. A few months back Bill Clinton spoke about the need to return to core values in the journey to economic recovery. He said that Ireland’s economic difficulties were not the end of the world but the beginning of another chapter in our history. ‘We need to help our friends not just to recover but to keep their heads on straight while recovering.’

If everyone had thirty lucid minutes before dying nobody would spend them thinking how great it was to be rich. We would think about people we liked and loved, and how the flowers smelled in Summer. Parents would remember what it was like when your children were born or when you gave your daughter away at the Altar.

Times change but values last. ‘The spirit came into me and made me stand up and I heard the Lord speaking to me‘ (Ezekiel). We Catholics will have to stand up and be counted. Stand up for values and principles we hold dear. Prophets may or may not be accepted among their own people but silence is not always the answer. We need to speak the truth. We must keep the faith.

When my nephew started playing rugby, he was explaining to me that when his team get the ball you have to ‘use it or lose it.’ With faith or talent or any God-given gift the choice is simple too–‘use it or lose it.’ Anything worth preserving takes time and effort. You know the story of the young musician who dreamed of playing in Carnegie Hall New York. She was called to audition in the world renowned theatre but was unsure which way to turn when she got off the bus. She saw an old man and asked: ‘How do I get to Carnegie Hall ?.’ He smiled and said: ‘Practice my friend. Practice. That’s how you get to Carnegie Hall.’ It’s how we become good Christians. It’s how we become more sensitive to the needs and hurts of those around us. It is the secret of nurturing the faith we treasure. ‘Practice my friend. Practice.’ (by Pat Donnellan)

Making Change Possible

Each of today’s readings raises serious issues for the person who wishes to follow Jesus along the way. A few phrases strike me in a particular fashion and I would like to reflect on these against the background of God’s call in Christ to all of us to live according to His way of love, justice and compassion. Ezekiel says that the Spirit of God “set him on his feet.” This reminds me that without the Holy Spirit, without grace, without the energy that is God’s gracious gift, faith-life is not possible, inner transformation is not possible, change is not possible, the movement into the wholeness that Yahweh-Shalom offers is not possible.

In saying this I remind myself that it is easier to do nothing than to do something, it is easier to be negative than positive, easier to be destructive than creative, and that I am an amalgam of these contradictory tendencies. That is why I have so often been stiff-necked, stubborn and rebellious, even cynical–because free-wheeling refusal to be responsible takes little effort and less understanding. To live the covenant, however, demands awareness; it calls for a commitment to be conscious of grace and of the practical implications of grace that must find expression in real, practical, reconciling, forgiving, growth oriented patterns of life and relationship.

If today’s gospel means anything, we must confront any tendency to judge others, take hurt and offence from them, reject them, and make the scapegoats of our own unrecognised, unaccepted aversions and resentments. We must become acutely aware of how we spread negativity at home, among our friends at work–or wherever–lest we become like Pharisees or Herodians, or those of Jesus’ own people who so readily rejected him. We must realise how easy it is to confuse reality with our own ingrained prejudices and preferred viewpoints. We need to see that every story has another side, every person has his or her own reasons for what they do.

With St Paul I need to acknowledge my own “thorn,” my own complex, shadow, inferior function, potential for neurotic behaviour; call it what you will, each of us has it! If I really want to be disciple I must learn to rebuild the centre of my existence on God’s terms lest I scatter myself and lose myself because I have no ground of coherent meaning on which to base my relationship with reality. This is spirituality, this is what psychology so often discovers we need. May we remember God’s grace, may we remember that it precedes us along the way, may we allow it to set us on our feet and make us courageous. May we permit it to energise us for the next few steps on the perilous, wonderful, bright, dark journey to abundant life. (by Jack Finnegan)