DAILY GOSPEL: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HOLY HUMANITY OF CHRIST.
WEDNESDAY, 4TH WK OF ORDINARY TIME (Mk 6:1-6)
GOSPEL: Mk 6:1–6
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples. When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
COMMENTARY
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”
The main fault of the Nazarenes, among others, was that they did not recognize the transcendent value of Jesus’ humanity. That attitude makes it impossible for them to receive the Savior and enter into his way of salvation, which is Himself. This is what Saint Augustine affirms:
“True man and true God … This is the Catholic faith: whoever confesses both is Catholic who has [in Christ] both a homeland and a way. He is the homeland to where we are going. He is the Way through which we are going, let’s go through Him to Him, and we will not be led astray “(Sermon 93).
Jesus is the source of life. His holy Humanity is an instrument, perfectly united to his Divinity, to communicate to us the supernatural life. He has used his holy humanity to communicate his divine life. Moreover, that very Holy Humanity, united to the Word, is also for us a source of bodily life. The Gospel, in effect, tells us that from Him came a virtue that healed everyone (Lk 6, 17-18). St. Augustine says:
“What happiness more certain than ours, being that the same who prays with us is the same one who gives what he asks for, because Christ is Man and God: as a man he asks, as God He gives” (Sermon 217) .
AS FOR THE QUESTION WHETHER JESUS HAD BIOLOGICAL BROTHERS AND SISTERS. THE ANSWER IS NO. WHY? CLICK HERE.