Fr Paul reads the Gospel from Mark (6: 1-6), in which Jesus returns to his hometown, Nazareth, and speaks at the synagogue.

What is interesting about today’s Gospel, says Fr Paul, is that in going home the people that know Jesus recognise him as an extraordinary person of Wisdom; they recognise him as a person of power to perform wonders; but it seems that it is just not enough.

If we understand that faith is putting all my trust in God and that God is my only hope, only then can we understand this Gospel episode because the people were prepared to acknowledge the wisdom of Jesus; they were prepared to accept that he had power, but they were not prepared to go that step further to see that God was at work in Jesus; that Jesus was the manifestation of God among them. This was just too much.

For our reflection today: Like people in the Gospel, it is all well and good to admire Jesus, to think of him as a great teacher, to think of him as an honourable man who gave everything for his high ideals, but, Fr Paul says, unless we see God in him then he cannot work the miracle of taking us to himself.