Commentary on the Gospel of
Are you preventing God's miracles?
John Bosco was born in 1815 in Northern Italy. He chose to become a priest to minister to the poor and neglected boys who lived in Turin, Italy. As a result of his efforts, several centres were opened in which young people could gather to play and pray.
In order to assist in this work with children, he established a community of priests and named it the Salesians, after his favourite saint, St. Francis de Sales, and founded another Congregation of women to work with girls, called the Daughters of Our Lady, Help of Christians. John Bosco died on 31 January 1888 and was canonised on 1 April 1934.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is rejected by the people of his own town. For as he says, “A prophet is not without honour except in his native place.” But he astounded crowds throughout Galilee because he taught with authority. To the crowds who listened to him preach, he declared: “You have heard it said, but I say . . .” He was referring, of course, to the Torah, the teaching of Moses, the court of final appeal. And therefore, he was claiming for himself an authority greater than that of Moses.
A natural reaction of the crowd was to ask, "Who does he think he is?" This is a form of envy that destroys or discredits someone who performs better than you. Is it common for us to encounter such attitudes and reactions in our church communities?
The terrible reality is that this narrow-minded attitude of the villagers prevents Jesus from performing any miracles in his own hometown. Imagine, the envy of the people makes them capable of even preventing miracles. Consider the instances when miraculous events could have occurred in our parish or community but didn't happen because we refused to accept and appreciate our brothers and sisters for their uniqueness.
