Wednesday.blog
The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, February 4, 2004
Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
2 Samuel 24:2,9-17
Psalm 32:1-2,5-7
Mark 6:1-6
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture. . . .
“No prophet is without honor except in his native place...” (Mark 6:4)
We often don’t realize when God is trying to touch our minds and hearts because He does so through seemingly ordinary people. Like children who turn blind eyes and deaf ears toward their familiar parents, we tend to take for granted those we think we know, people we have stereotyped and then dismissed their being instruments of God. Such was the situation when Jesus visited His home town. The natives may have heard rumors of His powerful teachings, healings and miracles, but still dismissed Him as their former carpenter now suffering from “delusions of grandeur.”
The Gospel shows that through human prejudice and narrowness, His townspeople cheated themselves of God’s very life; they rejected their Creator’s truth and love embodied in Jesus who was sent to pour out blessings upon them, and through them to the entire world. Ponder the truth that “no man is an island.”
Why do so many remain deaf and blind to God when He tries to touch them through other humans? Most likely because of our dislike for facts. By selectively choosing the appropriate Scripture passages,we have created a fictional mental image of God, one with whom we can feel completely comfortable and thoroughly understand, one we can manipulate, cajole into forgiving us, bargain with and from whom we can extort favors. In brief, we want a God that fulfills our will, not one who asks that we do His.
Merciful God,
heal our blindness,
cleanse us and regenerate us into Your holy image,
that we may pour forth from our hearts
the very goodness You revealed to us in Christ.
Amen.
- Marie Bocko, ocds
(mlbocko at borg dot com)
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