Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection February 05, 2025

05th February 2025 (Wednesday)

Psalter: Week 4

Readings of the Day

First Reading: Hebrews 12:4-7, 11-15

Brothers and sisters: In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children: My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as his sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one be deprived of the grace of God, that no bitter root spring up and cause trouble, through which many may become defiled.

Psalm 103:1-2, 13-14, 17-18a (R. see 17)

R/. The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.

R/. Alleluia.

Gospel: Mark 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.

Daily Gospel Reflection

Wednesday – 4th Week in Ordinary Time

Main Point: Faith opens up to the action of God’s grace while lack of faith closes one’s receptivity and forfeits the free gift of grace

In the gospel, we see what lack of faith does not and cannot do. It is seen in Jesus’ own people, in his own place. Those people are not able to rise above their narrow confines of territory and blood relationship. They see Jesus just as one of them and nothing more. They do not recognize the divinity in him. They cannot think of something beyond their human considerations and judgments. They are caught up within their human and cultural prejudices. Thus, his own people fail to believe in him and fail to accept him. Jesus is truly grieved over their unbelief. Consequently, they fail to obtain the grace of God offered through Jesus.

This is in contrast to the exhortation in the first reading from the letter to the Hebrews, which says: “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many may be defiled”. Jesus’ people defy this summon. They are defiled by their own root of bitterness and prejudice against Jesus. They “regard lightly the discipline of the Lord”. They lose sight of the fact that God disciplines those whom He loves. They fail to see that God wants to discipline them through His Son Jesus. They forget the simple truth that “though discipline looks painful for a moment, yet later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it”.

The same danger of unbelief is ever real in our case as well. We too may grow so familiar with God’s grace that we take it for granted. We may lose the sense of the sacred. Therefore, it is high time that we “lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees, and make straight paths for our feet”. It is the right time that we strive for peace with all and for the holiness.Let us imitate the example of St Agatha, a virgin martyr, in her purity of heart and integrity of life.

My Practice: God is ever ready and eager to shower His grace upon us, but He wants our faith to be open to it, to receive it and to cooperate with it.