Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Roman Ordinary calendar
St. Elizabeth of Portugal (1271-1336)
Book of Ezekiel 2,2-5.
As the Lord spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was speaking
say to me: Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their fathers have revolted against me to this very day.
Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. But you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD!
And whether they heed or resist–for they are a rebellious house–they shall know that a prophet has been among them.
Psalms 123(122),1-2a.2bcd.3-4.
To you I lift up my eyes
who are enthroned in heaven —
As the eyes of servants
are on the hands of their masters.
As the eyes of a maid
are on the hands of her mistress,
so are our eyes on the LORD, our God,
till he have pity on us.
Have pity on us, O LORD, have pity on us,
for we are more than sated with contempt;
our souls are more than sated
with the mockery of the arrogant,
with the contempt of the proud.
Second Letter to the Corinthians 12,7-10.
Brothers and sisters, that I paul might not become to elated, because of the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.
Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me,
but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.
Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6,1-6.
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
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!
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.
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.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Pope Saint John XXIII (1881-1963)
Journal of a soul, §1901-1903 (trans. Dorothy White)
“Where did this man get such wisdom? (…) Is he not the carpenter’s son?”
Every time I think of the profound mystery of the obscure, humble life of Jesus, during the first thirty years, I am more and more astounded and words fail me. It is very clear that before such a shining example the judgements and way of thinking not only of this world but also of overwhelming majority of ecclesiastics lose all value and seem in contradiction to it.
As for me, I confess that I still cannot form an idea of what this humility must be like. However much I study it, I seem to achieve only the semblance of humility; its real spirit, Jesus Christ in Nazareth’s love to be unknown, is known to me only by name. To think that our blessed Savior spent thirty years of his life in obscurity, and yet he was God, he was the “splendor of the substance of the Father” (Heb 1:3), he had come to save the world; and he did all this only to show us how necessary humility is and how it must be practised. And I, such a great sinner and so totally unworthy, think only of being pleased with myself and congratulating myself on my good results, all for the sake of a little worldly honour. I cannot conceive even the holiest thought without its being tinged with considerations of my own reputation with men (…) In the last analysis, it is only with the greatest effort that I can resign myself to the thought of real obscurity such as Jesus experienced and such as he has taught me to desire.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
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