“If you come to a town where people do not welcome you or will not listen to you, leave it...” (Mk 6:11)

“If you come to a town where people do not welcome you or will not listen to you, leave it and shake the dust off your feet. That will be a warning to them.” (Mk 6:11) 

Today’s Passages: Mk 6:7-13; Heb 12:18-19, 21-24

Meditation: Today’s meditation verse is only reminder of what we had reflected yesterday. Jesus the master always reminded his disciples of their future. Jesus was rejected by his home town, Capernaum and by his kith and kin. On leaving the town Jesus said to them, “A prophet is respected everywhere except in his own home town and his relatives and his family.” This is not only the experience of the master, but also of his disciples.

It will be replica of all what had happened to their master. Jesus says, “If the world hates you, just remember that it has hated me first.” (Jn 15:18) Again, “Remember what I told you: No slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. But, they will do all this to you because you are mine.” (Jn 15:20, 21) He continues, “I have told you this, so that you will not give up your faith.” (Jn 16:1)

This is the difference between Jesus the leader and other leaders of the world. He is not giving us any false promises or hopes rather the realities. When we are sent out to his ministries we do not have our own plans and projects, but his mission only. Therefore, we have to abide by the mission: “If you come to a town where people do not welcome you or will not listen to you, leave it and shake the dust off your feet. That will be a warning to them.” (Mk 6:11)

Jesus was rejected not only by his home town and his own relatives but also by the Samaritans; his owns and the others. However, he did not fail in fulfilling the mission entrusted to him by his Father. It was not of course an easy task for Jesus. He suffered like the servant of Yahweh: “I gave my back to those beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.” (Is 50:6)

Being his disciples, our mission also has the same mode of operation; it is not conquering by weapons but through our love. The world today is giving us the signs of more persecutions, but God is the Lord of history. He has always intervened in the history and completed his plan of salvation. Pope St. John Paul II wrote: "At the end of the second millennium, the Church has once again become a Church of martyrs. The persecutions of believers...[have] caused a great sowing of martyrdom in different parts of the world. The witness to Christ [is] borne even to the shedding of blood" (Towards the Third Millennium, 37).

 Let us also be encouraged by the fact that persecutions of “Saul” always have given birth to new “Paul” in the history of Christianity. Jesus says, “The world will make you suffer. But be brave! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33)

               

 Prayer: Lord God, we thank you and praise you for your daily eternal bread. We rededicate ourselves to the cause of the gospel. Lord, give your Holy Spirit in its abundance and guide us in each moment of our lives with courage and discernment. We ask for this grace through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Greetings: God is with you! Wish you a blissful Thursday!