July 5 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: to Reject and to be rejected

 

First Reading  Ezekiel 2:2-5
The Lord sends the prophet Ezekiel to the Israelites.

Responsorial Psalm  Psalm 123:1-2,3-4
A prayer to God for mercy

Second Reading  2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Paul bears insults and weakness for the sake of Christ.

Gospel Reading
Mark 6:1-6

Shortly after He began His public ministry, Jesus went back to His hometown of Nazareth but it was far from being a happy homecoming. They gave Him the cold shoulder and He ended up leaving Nazareth never to return. Why? It was because they could not believe that God could come in ordinary ways. When God came in human flesh they could not accept him because that story was ‘too good to be true”. Evasion and avoidance have not been limited to the people of Jesus’ own hometown. Jesus might pass without my realizing it and He might pass without my being ready to welcome Him. Today’s Gospel also tells us another point: that those who want to serve must be ready to go through the experience of rejection because “we don’t grow when things are easy but we grow when we face challengers”. Something positive always comes out of something negative. Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze us but they're supposed to help you discover who you are.