WEEKEND REFLECTION
And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household”.'
I think Jesus is being sarcastic here. The hometown of a prophet ought to be a place where he is honoured. We read that Jesus returned to his hometown and taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Jesus was in a sense with his family, that is, the People of Israel. The Jewish Messiah among his Jewish brethren. He was ‘home’. The people knew who he was: “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 yet, despite grasping some of these facts about him, they did not truly know who he was. They ‘took offence’ at his person. They could only see Jesus through an opaque lens. To see him clearly would be to risk upsetting the status quo. This is the reason why I think Jesus ‘could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them’; we might think that that was not a bad day’s work by our standards; but imagine what Christ could do with hearts open to him, which recognise his true being as God and Man. Jesus says earlier in the Gospel of Mark that his real family are those who ‘do the will of God’ (3:35). What is the will of God? In 1 Timothy 2:4-6 we read that God, ‘desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’.
Those gathered in the synagogue listening to Our Lord in the Gospel account could not see this truth. They thought they knew who Jesus was. They underestimated the one whom they thought they knew. We may want to reflect in our own lives whether we truly believe in the person of Jesus, our mediator who has won our salvation, and who, by his grace, brings us to a greater knowledge of himself, thereby grafting us into his divine life. We would be daft to refuse this offer for our true hometown is not of or in this world, but with God in heaven. We can only get home by the help of one who has come from there. Fortunately for us, he has come in the person of Jesus. One day, when we reach our home, we will find the Prophet par excellence, Our Lord Jesus Christ, truly enjoying the honour befitting his person in the company of his righteous sons and daughters in the heavenly household.
Bro. Joseph Baiham, O.P.
Pastor's Corner
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!
Congratulations to all, it is a great blessing to be in a nation where prosperity and abundance is possible. God continues to bless America so that we can do the will of God with more enthusiasm. To be alive after 15 months of pandemic means that God is good and that God continues to make miracles.
July and August are town months in which we will have a lot of activities in our church: Teens mini-retreat, Vacation Bible School, Cursillos retreat, CCD teachers retreat, beginning of CCD classes, and the Women's conference. Please come and join us and blessings to all!
On June 30th it will be 9 years that I came to this wonderful community! I given thanks to God and to you for welcoming me. I continue to give thanks for your patience, love, and sympathy for me. On July 1, I begin my 10th year here--let us begin again. I ask each one of us to walk together as sisters and brothers.
Again, I give thanks to our brothers who attended the "mini" retreat for Men. Thanks to the wives who accepted the paticipation of their husbands. Thanks to Lucio Ramirez who was the one in charge. Thank you to our sisters who cooked the rice and beans and salad.
Gracias a todos, Dios les de muchos hijos e hijas. Pido para que haya mas unidad en las parejas y menos celos--los celos no son buenos, y son solos signo de inseguridad y hasta enfermizos.
This coming Saturday, July 10th, we will have our Teens "mini" retreat. I want to give thanks to the team who have been having meetings for the last months. Thank you for your service to the church. May the Lord reward them. The retreat will start at 1 PM and end at 5 PM and is for ages 14-17.
We still need the two choirs I mentioned last weekend, and we need more CCD teachers to serve in the Vacation Bible School in the last week of July.
Let God move your hearts. Thank you.