February 01, Wednesday, 4th Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Hebrew 12:4-17,11-15; Gospel: Mark 6:1-6
God educates us because He loves us.
In the eyes of faith, the trials of this life are part of God's paternal pedagogy regarding their sons and daughters. The upsets and afflictions that we may experience, in our fight against everything that prevents us from being more faithful to following Jesus, will finally result in pleasant satisfaction. But we are in a generation in which the culture of loving sin is stronger than embracing the way of righteousness, knowing how much God hates sin and only desires what is good.
Today’s gospel, draws attention to the common fault of the people around Him in despising a prophet in his own land, even after witnessing the miracles, and listening to His teaching with astonishment and finding it extraordinary.
The gospel living can create division. Imitating Jesus can bring us into arguments with others, even with our closest friends and dearest ones. You will wonder about their unbelief even after experiencing all the miracles of healing in Jesus’ mission.
We are not any different from them. We know that Jesus is close to us and, yet, we still chose to sin, and despise Him in many ways. In our day-to-day living, rejecting the name of Jesus, and refusing to proclaim His name is very strongly there in us. As a very good example, see how shy we are in praying in public places or doing the sign of the cross as a way of proclaiming Jesus. Continuing this can even lead us to total separation from Him. The challenge, now, is to learn more about who Jesus is and to live in the belief that lack of faith will be a major factor in bringing us to fall and keeping us away from Jesus.
In this story, we hear the opinions of rulers, religious authorities, crowds, disciples, and family members of Jesus’ time and their continuous doubts about Him. Indeed, they have no faith at all even though they have seen Him perform miracles. May we have faith to believe even in things that we do not see.
Lord, I pray that I may recognize You in all the encounters each day and that I may nourish Your presence and share You with others even at times I will be rejected.
For reflection:
Considering Jesus and his disciples: do we realize that communicating with Jesus is a way of commission that He himself has entrusted to us?
Considering the inhabitants of Nazareth: how often do we reject Jesus’ invitation in our community work?
Considering Jesus: In a call to action, what are the ways you can strengthen others?
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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