HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME / YEAR B

HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME / YEAR B

THEME : ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country’.

BY: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA.

READINGS OF THE DAY
2 Sam 24:2,8-17
Psalm 31:1-2,5-7
Mark 6:1-6

LITURGICAL COLOUR
GREEN

INTRODUCTION
Good morning my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time of Year B. And Today we also commemorate the Memorial of Saint John Don Bosco.

FROM OUR FIRST READING
In today’s first reading, the author says to his listeners, ‘Be careful… that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this can poison a whole community’. We should always be vigilant that we do not let all those things from misleading us down the path towards ruin, just as David had done. David had mostly been faithful to the Lord, and save for this occasion and the other one when he planned the death of Uriah in order to gain Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife to be his own wife, he has mostly been faithful and committed to the Lord. Yet, as the evidences showed that even this man of faith and obedience to God could still fall into the same temptations and commit grievous sins against God, and hence, we too may encounter the same problem as well.

FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the time when the Lord Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, which was likely in the region of Galilee near where Jesus hailed from, the small town of Nazareth. That was why we heard how the people recognised Him and then became judgmental of Him because they deemed that His supposed parents and family were humble and did not have good status in the community, as His father St. Joseph was just a carpenter, and His family members were living in the region. To the people at that time, which is something that is still true to this day, one’s background and pedigree are often taken into account and determine whether one is respected, honoured or despised and rejected. Hence, in this case, those people doubted the Lord simply because they all thought that His background was rather too humble and insignificant.

CONCLUSION
The life and teaching of Jesus shows us that God speaks to us in and through the ordinary events of life. What we need are the eyes to see and the ears to hear the extraordinary in the ordinary, the divine in the human. The gospel reading for example, invites us to see the familiar and the ordinary with new eyes, the eyes of faith. The failure of the people of Nazareth to see in this way inhibited what Jesus could do among them, ‘he could work no miracle there’. Our seeing with the eyes of faith gives the Lord space to work among us in new ways.

The Saint of the Day
Today, the Church also celebrates the Memorial of Saint John Bosco, a well-renowned saint whose life and dedication to God had been a great inspiration for many people throughout the Church, and many were touched by God through this great man’s life, works and dedications to the missions entrusted to him. St. John Bosco was renowned for his efforts in reaching out to the less privileged, especially to the juveniles and youths who had been neglected and ignored by the community, all those who had suffered from problems and various challenges in life. He himself faced a lot of hardships and struggles in his youth, having been born amidst times of famines and poverty among the people, and his own family had to endure many losses, including that of his own father early on when he was barely just two years old.
Happy Feast Dear Salesian communities.

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