Gospel (Mk 6,1-6) - At that time, Jesus came to his homeland and his disciples followed him. When the Sabbath arrived, he began teaching in the synagogue. And many, listening, were amazed and said: «Where do these things come from? And what wisdom was that given to him? And wonders like those performed by his hands? Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, of Joses, of Judas and of Simon? And aren't his sisters here with us?" And it was a source of scandal for them. But Jesus said to them: "A prophet is not despised except in his own country, among his relatives and in his own house." And there he could not perform any miracles, but only he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled at their unbelief. Jesus went through the surrounding villages, teaching.

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

«Where do these things come from?», the inhabitants of Nazareth ask themselves after listening to Jesus. Of course, if they had remembered, among many others, the words addressed to Moses: «The Lord, your God, will raise up for you, in among you, among your brothers, a prophet like me. You will listen to him" (Dt 18,15). If they had remembered them, they could have understood that those words came from the Lord. It is in this horizon that faith is placed: welcoming the words of preaching as authoritative, important words for one's life. The apostle Paul will remind the Romans: "Faith comes from hearing" (Rom 10:17). But the inhabitants of Nazareth did not want to listen to Jesus. They stopped at what they already knew about him. The evangelist writes sadly: "And it was a source of scandal for them." This scandal is the scandal of the incarnation. The Lord, in fact, chose to save men by sending his Son, who, "even though he was in the form of God... emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of men" (Phil 2:6). It is the mystery that we contemplate from Christmas in that child up to Golgotha in the Crucifix. And it is also the scandal of the Church - the body of Christ throughout history - which, despite all its weakness and smallness, is sent by Jesus to communicate the Gospel of love to the ends of the earth, in the many Nazareths of this world. God does not use extraordinary people, but men and women who entrust themselves to him; and he does not present himself with wonders or words of pride, but with simple evangelical preaching and miracles of charity. The Gospel preached and charity lived are the sign of the presence of God who acts in history, who transforms the world, freeing it from evil. We know well how little this evangelical logic is accepted by the common mentality (of which we are all children). There is always a gap between the Gospel of love and the mentality of this world. Jesus had direct experience of this in Nazareth. For this reason he notes with bitterness: "A prophet is not despised except in his homeland, among his relatives and in his house." The evangelist notes that Jesus could not work miracles in Nazareth; it's not that he didn't want to, "he couldn't." His fellow citizens would have liked Jesus to perform wonders that would amaze, but they had not understood that it was not a question of performing wonders or magic in the service of his own fame. The miracle is God's response to the one who holds out his hand and asks for help. None of those who heard him held out their hand. In Nazareth Jesus was able to heal only a few sick people: those few who cried out for help as he passed by. Let us also place ourselves next to those sick people who were outside and who asked for help from the young prophet who passed by. We will be healed together with them.