January 30th 2022.  Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL    4:21-30

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

 

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GOSPEL   Luke 4:21-30

Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying:
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"
He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb,
'Physician, cure yourself,' and say,
'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"
And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

 

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

1. The word of God is prophetic. It is not about endorsing what we are but is aimed at shaking us. We must be open to the transcendent dimension of God’s word and action, not reading things merely from the point of view of the flesh.

This Sunday we read of the negative reaction of the people of Nazareth to Jesus’ words in the synagogue (which were recounted in last Sunday’s Gospel). The story is prepared by the first reading narrating the resistance by the king and people to the prophecy of Jeremiah. Prophecy is not just a piece of furniture in our lives, but is a witness to a truth that shakes us. The word of God is not about affirmation of what we already are but is directed towards correction and growth. In the Gospel, the people start to murmur about Jesus. Ever since Mary conceived virginally, they knew that there was something not “normal” about the provenance of Jesus. The pregnancy of Mary didn’t fit in with the usual timeframe of the Jewish marriage customs. Nazareth was the place of the incredible faith of Mary, but also the place of incredulity. The people look upon Jesus merely from the point of view of the flesh, from what their eyes can see, with no openness to mystery. The rejection of prophecy, in fact, is the rejection of the transcendent dimension of things, the perspective of God.

 

2. We Christians often look upon Jesus as if he were merely the son of Joseph. We do not realize the incredible grace that is at our fingertips. It is essential that we appreciate our distance from God and be conscious of the extraordinary manner in which he bends down to us.

Jesus responds with strong words, pointing out historical cases of those who were outsiders and yet received God’s blessing which was denied in those instances to the people of Israel. Often, we do not appreciate what we have before us. The people of Nazareth were too used to seeing Jesus. We Christians tend to take for granted the greatness that we have at our fingertips. We interpret our situations without the prophetic spirit, in a horizontal way. We have grace within our reach, but that grace ends up being received only by those who return to the Church from a life of sin, those who are transformed by the mercy offered to them, whilst the rest of us do not appreciate what we are part of. In a sense, we behave like the people of Nazareth who see Jesus merely as the son of Joseph, full of preconceptions. It is essential that we are aware of our extraneity from God and appreciate the extraordinary blessings of his grace, rather than looking enviously elsewhere and complaining as if it were a national sport. When we read the word of God, let us allow its prophetic nature to challenge us, correct us, confront us with our shortcomings. This can only do us good.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

In Sunday’s Gospel we read how Jesus’ words disturbed the people of Nazareth. A true prophet is not an astrologer who does your horoscope and tells you what you want to hear. God’s ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. Whenever the Lord speaks to me, he must tell me something different to what I am thinking myself. Otherwise it is not God who is speaking to me! I cannot go to the liturgy and expect the word of God to leave me unmoved! True joy and true consolation require being shaken out of my own closed mentality to return to the Lord. How often we turn the word of God into something sugary and domesticated. Or else we turn it into an abstraction to stimulate our intelligence. But the word of God is a place where the Lord is actively caring for us and seeking to transform us. When we pray, or go into the liturgy or contemplate the word of God, it is essential that we do so ready to be challenged, ready to allow God to visit us and redeem us. When we hear the word of God, it is as if we are on the banks of the Red Sea, waiting to see if the waters will open or if our enemies will reach us. We must contemplate the word in the context of the real drama of our own lives.