From: Matthew 13:54-58
No One is a Prophet in His Own Country
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Commentary:
53-58. The Nazarenes’ surprise is partly due to people’s difficulty in recognizing
anything exceptional and supernatural in those with whom they have been on fa-
miliar terms. Hence the saying, “No one is a prophet in his own country.” These
old neighbors were also jealous of Jesus. Where did He acquire this wisdom?
Why Him rather than us? They were unaware of the mystery of Jesus’ concep-
tion; surprise and jealousy cause them to be shocked, to look down on Jesus
and not to believe in Him: “He came to His own home, and His own people re-
ceived Him not” (John 1:11).
“The carpenter’s son”: this is the only reference in the Gospel to St. Joseph’s
occupation (in Mark 6:3 Jesus Himself is described as a “carpenter”). Probably
in a town like Nazareth the carpenter was a general tradesman who could turn
his hand to jobs ranging from metalwork to making furniture or agricultural im-
plements.
For an explanation of Jesus’ “brethren”, see the note on Matthew 12:46-47.
[The note of Matthew 12:46-47 states:
46-47. “Brethren”: ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and other languages had no special
words for different degrees of relationship, such as are found in more modern lan-
guages. In general, all those belonging to the same family, clan and even tribe
were “brethren”.
In the particular case we have here, we should bear in mind that Jesus had diffe-
rent kinds of relatives, in two groups — some on His mother’s side, others on St
Joseph’s. Matthew 13:55-56 mentions, as living in Nazareth, James, Joseph, Si-
mon and Judas (”His brethren”) and elsewhere there is reference to Jesus’ “sis-
ters” (cf. Matthew 6:3). But in Matthew 27:56 we are told that James and Joseph
were sons of a Mary distinct from the Blessed Virgin, and that Simon and Judas
were not brothers of James and Joseph, but seemingly children of a brother of St
Joseph.
Jesus, on the other hand, was known to everyone as “the son of Mary” (Mark
6:3) or “the carpenter’s son” (Matthew 13:55).
The Church has always maintained as absolutely certain that Jesus had no bro-
thers or sisters in the full meaning of the term: it is a dogma that Mary was ever-
Virgin (cf. note on Matthew 1:25).]
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
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First reading |
Jeremiah 26:1-9 © |
At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘The Lord says this: Stand in the court of the Temple of the Lord. To all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of the Lord you must speak all the words I have commanded you to tell them; do not omit one syllable. Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intended for their misdeeds. Say to them, “The Lord says this: If you will not listen to me by following my Law which I put before you, by paying attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send so persistently to you, without your ever listening to them, I will treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.”’
The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of the Lord. When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that the Lord had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets seized hold of him and said, ‘You shall die! Why have you made this prophecy in the name of the Lord, “This Temple will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, and uninhabited”?’ And the people were all crowding round Jeremiah in the Temple of the Lord.
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Psalm |
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Psalm 68:5,8-10,14 © |
In your great love, answer me, O God.
More numerous than the hairs on my head
are those who hate me without cause.
Those who attack me with lies
are too much for my strength.
How can I restore
what I have never stolen?
In your great love, answer me, O God.
It is for you that I suffer taunts,
that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.
In your great love, answer me, O God.
This is my prayer to you,
my prayer for your favour.
In your great love, answer me, O God,
with your help that never fails.
In your great love, answer me, O God.
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Gospel Acclamation |
cf.1Th2:13 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept God’s message for what it really is:
God’s message, and not some human thinking.
Alleluia!
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Or |
1P1:25 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of the Lord remains for ever:
What is this word?
It is the Good News that has been brought to you.
Alleluia!
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Gospel |
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Matthew 13:54-58 © |
Coming to his home town, Jesus taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, ‘Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? This is the carpenter’s son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?’ And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country and in his own house’, and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.