“I’m so angry at God!” The young woman exploded. She talked about her two painful business failures. “Why is God so cruel?” After listening to her, I shared my story. “When I got married, I wanted to start a business to support my family. God will bless my business. After all, I served Him all my life. But I failed. Not just once or twice. From my last count, I failed in 18 businesses,” I said. “Every failure hurt, but I kept trying and learned from every single failure. Today, I have two profitable businesses with 200 employees. But it took a long, painful process.”

“So you’re telling me it’s normal to fail until I succeed?” she asked. I shook my head. “I’m telling you to redefine your success. You must let go of this fantasy in your mind that you are exempted from suffering just because you prayed or you’re close to God. We cannot choose a painless life, but we can choose a life of pain with God or without God. If you’re able to face your pain with God beside you, that is success.”

Friend, success is not a painless life. It is embracing your pain every day with joy and declaring, “God is with me!” Bo Sanchez (bosanchez@kerygmafamily.com)

reflect

Experiencing some pain today? Embrace it with God beside you.

Dearest God, right now it really hurts, but I know that with You beside me, I can endure everything. Amen.

St. Brigid of Ireland, pray for us.

A disciple of Jesus is willing to be disciplined. Disciples should work on the areas of their lives that need to be transformed. We cannot call ourselves disciples of Jesus if we do not turn away from sin and become more and more like Him. God calls us to holiness and we need to be ready to respond to His call.

⁴ Brothers and sisters: In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. 5 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; ⁶ for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. ⁷ Endure your trials as “discipline;” God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline? ¹¹ 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. ¹² So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. ¹³ Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed. ¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ 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.

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 103:1-2, 13-14, 17-18

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

¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all my being bless his holy name. ² Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (R) ¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, ¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust. (R) ¹⁷ But the kindness of the Lord is from eternity to eternity toward those who fear him, and his justice toward children’s children ¹⁸ among those who keep his covenant. (R)

Gospel | Mark 6:1-6

There are times when we do not like people from our group to get ahead of us. We resent that they are more successful than us, so we try to “cut them down to size.” This is a sinful reaction to the blessings God gives to others. We need to repent of this sin and celebrate the gifts of everyone in our community. This way, will we be able to become a witness to the work of God's grace in people's lives.

Gospel Acclamation

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

¹ Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples. ² 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! ³ Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. ⁴ 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.” ⁵ So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. ⁶ He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Read the Bible in one year! Read ROMANS 1 - 4 today.

During the lockdown stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches began livestreaming the Holy Mass celebrations so that the Word of God could still reach the faithful inside their homes. My parish put up a YouTube channel where we posted the daily Masses. The livestreaming drew many viewers from outside the parish boundaries and even abroad. People started sending messages of appreciation and praise for the good broadcast and inspiring homilies. They even began sending “stars,” which I later on discovered were convertible to cash. The parish was actually earning more during the pandemic.

More so, I was getting messages of commendation for my daily homilies from people I don’t even know. I must admit, I enjoyed the attention. I started checking how many were tuning in, the new likes and subscribers added for the day, and even how many views my homily posts were getting daily. It became a preoccupation, such that I sometimes got disappointed when one homily post got fewer views and likes compared to others. My heart was no longer in the right space. I was no longer a prophet. I was becoming more profit-oriented.

In the Gospel today, Jesus went back to His hometown and spoke the message that people needed to hear. As a result, He was rejected. They took offense at Him. In other Gospel accounts of the same incident, people wanted to push Him over the cliff. From Jesus’ experience, I realized that honor, recognition, and compensation are never the preoccupation of a true prophet. If that was the case, He will not be a prophet but a puppet. The only true concern of a prophet should be honor and recognition for Jesus and His message. Everything else is secondary.

We still stream the Masses in the parish because it allows the message to reach way beyond the borders of the church structure. I promised Jesus that I will proclaim the Word as best as I can. But I promised, too, that I won’t care if there were no stars sent or multiple views of the channel. Proclaiming Jesus and His message is its own reward. Fr. Joel O. Jason

reflection question

Do you care too much about likes, views, and followers? Liberate yourself from the obsession to be affirmed. Otherwise, you will be a slave to your surroundings.

In Your love, O Lord, I rest secure. Amen.

Today, I pray for: __________________________________________