Daily lesson for January 27, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verse 5:

"And he could do no mighty work there."

After a powerful preaching and healing campaign throughout Galilee, Jesus has gone back to Nazareth.  But there, amidst his own people and in his own hometown Jesus could do no powerful miracle. 

I hope you can see the Gospel for your life in that: Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God, could do no miracle in his own home.

So many of us want so desperately to try to fix our families. Husbands and wives and sons and daughters or friends we love are lost or broken or screwed up and we are desperate to try to save them.  So desperate that we end up enabling them or pushing them further away or destroying everybody else -- including ourselves. We want so badly to work a miracle but the Gospel -- the Gospel -- says Jesus could work no mighty work.  

We must accept this. As the serenity prayer says, we must  "accept the things we cannot change".

But just because we cannot work a miracle does not mean we can do nothing. Note the Gospel says he could do no "strong" work at home. Sometimes it is not the big things, but the small things -- the writing of a letter, a place at the table, a ride to a first AA meeting, the holding of a hand.

Sometimes we just can't work a mighty miracle. But as Mother Theresa said, "We are not called to do great things, but small things with great love."  Sometimes the small things are enough. Sometimes they are not. We must learn to accept all of this, and receive it as the Gospel truth.