Discussion Questions

First Reading

Ezekiel 2:2-5

F1. Does the world need prophets now? If so, for what? And what are the today’s prophets saying? Are Greta Thunberg and Pope Francis prophets for the climate crisis?

F2. Do you think the ordinary prophet has great success or runs into opposition most of the time? Have you and/or your ideas ever been rejected when you tried to change something for the better? How do you handle rejection?

Second Reading

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

S1. If you went out shopping for weaknesses or crosses to bear would you pick the ones you already have or would you pick different ones? Why? Do you find God in your weakness? Can it be a constant source of grace?

S2. “My grace is sufficient for you.” Do you rely on these words? How often do you bring them out and use them?

Gospel

Mark 6:1-6

G1. Can you think of theologians, saints, or scientists who were rejected for their ideas? For what cause could you be a prophet? Racial justice? Immigration? Care for the environment?
 
G2. “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary? ... And they took offence at him.” What was it about Jesus that Pope Francis says the people in his native place couldn’t accept?

They did not accept the mystery (of the Incarnation). … They thought it was scandalous that the immensity of God should be revealed in the smallness of our flesh, that the Son of God should be the son of a carpenter, that the divine should be hidden in the human, that God should inhabit the face, the words, the gestures of a simple man. This is the scandal: the incarnation of God, his concreteness, his “daily life”. And God became concrete in a man, Jesus of Nazareth, he became a companion on the way, he made himself one of us. “You are one of us,” we can say to Jesus.

What a beautiful prayer! It is because one of us understands us, accompanies us, forgives us, loves us so much. In reality, an abstract, distant god is more comfortable, one that doesn’t get himself involved in situations and who accepts a faith that is far from life, from problems, from society. Or we would even like to believe in a ‘special effects’ god who does only exceptional things and always provokes strong emotions. Instead, brothers and sisters, God incarnated himself: God is humble, God is tender, God is hidden, he draws near to us, living the normality of our daily life.

Pope Francis Angelus for 14 Ord B
July 4, 2021

Anne Osdieck

**From Saint Louis University