14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
‘My Grace is Enough’
O God, who in the abasement of your Son
have raised up a fallen world,
fill your faithful with holy joy,
for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin
you bestow eternal gladness.
In today’s readings, Ezekiel and St Paul provide us with valuable lessons in discipleship. Like Jesus, their work for God brings them into situations that they would not choose for themselves and which appear to meet with failure.
Ezekiel, in the First Reading, was living at the time of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians (597 BC) and the subsequent exile of the Israelites. God made Ezekiel his prophet and messenger to serve those exiled and gives him his Spirit, but God does not promise Ezekiel success in his mission.
Today’s Psalm is a song of petition in a time of persecution, made in a spirit of confidence and trust in God’s mercy.
In the Second Reading, Paul faces not only opposition from without, but also weakness from within – a thorn in the flesh. He grows in understanding that he is not to depend on himself, but rather on Christ’s power, where divine grace works best through human weakness and humility.
Like Ezekiel and Paul, Jesus, in today’s Gospel story, also had to cope with opposition and rejection from his own people in Nazareth. They struggle to believe because they think they know him and his family. They are convinced that he could not be anyone special. This amazes Jesus.
This week, I may want to pray for the times when I face life’s challenges and desolations, that I might be given greater wisdom and trust in the Lord.
