GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 5 FEBRUARY, ST AGATHA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, MEMORIAL

Mark 6:1-6.  To this point Jesus with his disciples had preached throughout Galilee.  People were excited.  Crowds gathered around him.  It had not been all plain sailing by any means.  He had met with opposition and conflict from the Pharisees since the beginning of his public ministry, for example, and when he had entered the country of the Gerasenes (5:21-43) people were afraid of him, begging him to go away.  But now he faced a real test.  With his disciples he entered the synagogue in Nazareth, his hometown.  It was likely the synagogue that he and his family had attended since he was a child.  Jesus was now about age 30, having for a number of years spent his life as a labouring man, likely a carpenter.  As a rabbi with disciples he rose in the synagogue to teach.  The people, who had known him and his family, were “astounded,” amazed, but not in a positive way.  We can hear the reaction now, ‘hey, wait a minute, where did he get all this? We know him and his family, common people in our community!’  They “took offense at him,” refusing accept his teaching as improbable,  rejecting him and his teaching, even with contempt.  As a result Jesus was unable to teach in Nazareth or perform the healings he was known for throughout the rest of Galilee, except for a few people.  He was “amazed” (not in a positive sense) “at their unbelief,” their lack of trust, lack of faith.  Jesus said, “a prophet is not without honour, except in their own hometown, and among his own kin,” a phrase widely quoted even now, without understanding Jesus’ meaning.  I suppose it is something like ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’  We are reminded of the saying from the sublime Prologue of St John’s gospel (1:11), “he came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” 

As Catholic Christians comfortable with our church membership and our own commitment, we too can become resistant to aspects of Jesus’ teaching, having at best lukewarm trust and faith, and fail to accept him as we ought,