Celebrating 100 over years in Irondequoit
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Cycle C
- C252: Why were the people in Jesus' hometown of Nazareth so "closed" to his message?
- Love Does Not Brood Over Injuries
- Q408: Why did the synagogue gathering want to kill Jesus? The gospel story (Luke 4:21-30) doesn't seem to reflect a motive.
- Q565: Why would the people of Nazareth turn against Jesus so suddenly?
C252: Why were the people in Jesus' hometown of Nazareth so "closed" to his message?
Our Gospel today (Luke 4:21-30) is a great study in human reactions to the unexpected, and a great lesson in Christian attitudes. We go through life with "little boxes" that we put all kinds of people into, boxes of our own design. Politicians, preachers, performers, police, professors, plain folks - - we have a box for each one of them! If someone doesn't fit our "box description" then he or she is rejected, or ignored at best.
I am reminded of the Maryknoll Father who asked a few years ago what "our" Savior would look like, if we were asked to "design" that Savior. So, out comes our little "box." Of course he would be Male, because I am male. (Handsome and balding and well-fed, for the same reason.) He would ensure that everyone else elected the public official of "my" choice. He would be a Terminator and stop all terrorists and wars; have an IQ of 300 but speak so everyone could understand; and instantly heal miraculously anyone for whom I prayed. And on and on… We tend to create God in our image, rather than accepting God as he reveals himself to us.
Our God revealed himself to the people in Nazareth, and reveals himself to us today, as one who is to be found in the commonplace, in the ordinary events of our lives. In other words, he is to be found wherever we are, especially if we are poor and suffering. He treats us all the same – with great love and as sinners needing to work out our salvation every day. He calls us to believe, so that he can live in a unique temple - - within us, through Baptism. And he arranged to be available to us in a special sacramental way, the Holy Eucharist. That doesn't fit the "box" of a lot of folk who have designed their own Messiah, so they ignore him and even try to throw "over the cliff" that concept (and reality) of Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, as well as His Presence in the poor and suffering.
Know Your Catechism! Our Savior proclaimed the Kingdom of God, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies. He calls everyone to enter that kingdom, the only condition being to accept his word (CCC 543). He even invites sinners and shares the life of the poor (CCC 544,545). The Father wants to share his divine life with us, and he does this by gathering people around his son Jesus Christ (CCC 541), the head of this "family of God" (CCC 542). Do you live as if you believe that Jesus is your Savior?
Love Does Not Brood Over Injuries
The Sisters of Mercy are one of the best known orders of women religious in English-speaking countries. They were founded in Ireland in 1831 by Catherine McAuley. She was a well-to-do young lay woman who had already established in Dublin a "House of Mercy" where she taught poor girls and gave shelter to homeless women. Her new religious order soon became noted for its zeal in carrying on these types of social charity. It spread across Ireland and soon by invitation into other lands, especially where impoverished Irish people had emigrated. For Mother Catherine "mercy" meant "love in the face of misery"; and the world was full of the poor who needed love.
Mother McAuley was skilled at training her sisters for their special calling - demanding, but gentle. Every now and again she left her central house on Baggot Street, Dublin, to visit her novices and postulants who were at the Mercy convent in Carlow. The "learners" shared the Carlow nuns' high regard for the founders with one exception.
This one candidate is the subject of our story. The historian of the Mercy sisterhood tells us "Reverend Mother McAuley was liked by all except one postulant in whose stocking she had observed a hole on a previous visit."
Who was the postulant? No name is given. Did she persevere as a candidate? No statement on that either. But the facts stand. The young woman was not only embarrassed that Reverend Mother had noticed a hole in her stocking; she was angry with her for having pointed it out!
Robert Burns once wrote "Oh wad some power tho giftie gie us/to see ourselves as others see us". We're sent criticism because we do not like to admit our shortcomings. But criticism can be one of the highest acts of love. So we must not brood over it as a supposed injury, but welcome it as a gracious gift. After all unless we know we have a hole in our stocking, how can we mend it? (See I. Cor., today's second reading.)
-Father Robert F. McNamara
Q408: Why did the synagogue gathering want to kill Jesus? The gospel story (Luke 4:21-30) doesn't seem to reflect a motive.
Have you ever said something that caused someone to "fly off the handle" at you in anger, to your extreme surprise? I have; and it was only in hindsight that I realized that I had "pricked" this wonderful couple's fantasy world about a wonderful pastor that they thought could walk on water. It was necessary to point out a challenging "reality factor" that they refused to see or accept, and the verbal retaliation was torrential and instantaneous.
Consider the prophet Jeremiah in the First Reading (Jer 1:4-5,17-19). God warned him that his call to be a prophet would instantly put him in conflict with the civil authorities, religious authorities, and even the people. No one wants to hear God's challenging word, if it clashes with their fantasy world.
Jesus ran into the same thing in today's Gospel story. In effect, he was saying "Hey, you dummies, don't you see that during the time of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, only one gentile leper was cleansed and only one gentile woman received aid from a famine? Why do you think that was?" The Jews in the synagogue did not want to hear this strong challenge to their pre-conceived ideas about what being the "chosen" people meant, nor did they want to hear about the spiritual and ethical demands that were needed in response.
There is no way to avoid a blast of anger to God's challenging word, as both Jeremiah and Jesus found out. Instead, like Jesus, you have to "walk right through" the opposition, walk right through the pain. This is part of the life of a Christian: not to avoid the cross, but accept it with love, and to respond always with love.
Know Your Catechism! Truth entails honesty and discretion (CCC #2469). Above all, one must speak the truth with love, and live the truth in love (Eph 4:15). If you do not, you have not lived up to your Calling, and have failed the "love test" (Second Rdg, 1 Cor 12:31-13:13).
Q565: Why would the people of Nazareth turn against Jesus so suddenly?
Today’s gospel story (Luke 4:21-30) is a continuation of the story from last Sunday. Last Sunday Jesus had demonstrated and claimed that he was the fulfillment of the Prophet Isaiah’s announcement of the anointed one, the Messiah, who would bring healing and good news to the poor and oppressed (Isaiah 61). His listeners had no problem at all with that claim of fulfillment by Jesus. In fact, they were just “amazed at the gracious words” that Jesus proclaimed in the synagogue.
But then they began to question his pedigree – his ancestry and his carpenter background. That sure didn’t sound to them like the proper credentials for a Messiah! Jesus knew where this would lead, so he reminds them of a truth, that no prophet is accepted in his own native place. He proceeds to give them two examples from the life of the Prophet Elijah, who God had sent to Gentiles rather than Jews – first to a Gentile widow in Zarephath during a famine, and then to cure a leprous condition of the pagan Gentile Naaman.
That is when things turned ugly, and murderous! The Jews were currently oppressed by the Roman occupation; that situation they could live with, because they believed it was only temporary until a Savior, a Messiah would come to save them. But what they could not live with was the idea that a Gentile would be placed on an even par with the chosen people! That was more than they could accept in their limited understanding of God’s plan of salvation, and their misunderstanding of their own role in that plan.
The actions of the local folks are clear: they wanted to expel Jesus from their town, by killing him if that was necessary. Consider your own actions. Do you realize that you expel Jesus from your life every time you choose to sin? How often have you taken him to the brink of your heart, and given him that eternity-losing push? The Good News is that this Messiah always gives you one more chance. It is up to you to take it.
KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! The fullness of the Spirit that rested on the Messiah was not to remain only with Him, but was to be communicated to the whole messianic people – a promise of Christ carried out at Pentecost and at our baptism (CCC 1287).
