When you look at your sister, brother, father, mother or even a community member who do you see? We look at them knowingly, as though we know them through and through. Often times with affection but other times when they don’t behave up to our expectations, then disdain!
Why do we not look at one another as a fellow child of God of our Heavenly Father so loved by Him? Such that we see in one another the potential that He sees, the will to see the good and the will for good for them. Our loving Father who will continue to train them through their own trials and suffering, so that they might rise to new life in Him.
And they do, that is when they are transfigured and strive to minister to others; will we praise and Glorify our Lord by accepting, affirming and edifying them for His greater Glory?
Open my eyes Lord to see the good in everyone, that I may love them just as You do. Amen
________
First reading
Hebrews 12:4-7,11-15
God is training you as his sons
In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.
Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons? My son, when the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when he reprimands you. For the Lord trains the ones that he loves and he punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons. Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him? Of course, any punishment is most painful at the time, and far from pleasant; but later, in those on whom it has been used, it bears fruit in peace and goodness. So hold up your limp arms and steady your trembling knees and smooth out the path you tread; then the injured limb will not be wrenched, it will grow strong again.
Always be wanting peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord. Be careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this can poison a whole community.
________
Gospel
Mark 6:1-6
‘A prophet is only despised in his own country’
Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
CatholicJules.net 