'To you have I lifted up my eyes.' Sunday Reflections, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Keiko Uemura on her First Communion Day, December 1971
Keiko died 27 April 1972, aged 14

To you have I lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in the heavens (Responsorial Psalm).

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel  Mark 6:1-6 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

Jesus went away from there and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 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 they took offence at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour, except in his home town and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

 

Mount Fuji and Cherry Blossoms
Woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige [Wikipedia]

I have used this material a number of times before but it never fails to move me. It shows how young people can lead us to Jesus Christ.

In the Gospel above, using the English Standard translation, which will be used in the Lectionary for England & Wales and of Scotland from Advent this year, we read that Jesus marvelled because of their unbelief. Both the New American Bible and the Jerusalem Bible lectionaries read, He was amazed at their lack of faith. Jesus was among his own people, in the town where his brothers and sisters, i.e., his cousins, lived. Perhaps his amazement was a form of frustration. Missionaries are men and women who are often 'amazed' at what seems to be their lack of 'success' in changing the situation, whether it is leading people to faith in Jesus Christ or working among baptised people for the justice that the Gospel demands but evidently isn't there.

Continue at Bangor to Bobbio.

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