July 4.   Sunday 14B.  Fr Brian was concerned that quite a few of the youth but even some older parishioners seemed to be drifting between different churches. He used the reading to highlight that reality.  “There seem to be a lot of so-called prophets around these days, in our own towns or in other countries. What about that Nigerian prophet that so many of our people went to listen to? We really only heard about this when the building collapsed and many died, but how many of those people were Catholics and following a different prophet as well? Doesn’t that happen here too? People go to Mass in the morning and then to another “reborn” church later on?  I have to ask myself, ‘Are people searching all the time and for what? Are they not satisfied with our own religion?” 

A prophet is not without honour except in his own country and among his own kind and in his own house. From Mark 6:1-6.  

Pope Francis: The weakening of faith and religious practice in some societies has an effect on families, leaving them more isolated amid their difficulties. AL43. We believers need to find occasions to speak with one another and to act together for the common good and the promotion of the poor. The deeper, strong and richer our own identity is, the more we will be capable of enriching others with our own proper contribution.   FT 282