Sharing the Word – February-03-2019 – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (YearC)

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C.
The Readings:1st Reading; Jeremiah 1 : 4 – 5, 17 – 19.
Responsorial Psalm; Ps 70 : 1 – 6, 15, 17
2nd Reading; 1 Corinthians 12 : 31 – 13: 13.
Gospel; Luke 4 : 21 – 30.

We hear how God had prepared Jeremiah for his work. This account tells us that those for whom Jeremiah will have to work and prophesy to, will not receive it all happily. However, God tells him that he will need to be strong to resist all the internal and external forces that will come to silence him. Prophets have never been easily accepted in their own homes.

In today’s Gospel, after Jesus has proclaimed His mission to His own people, they expect more miracles from Him, since He is their own. They have heard about all the mighty things He has done in other towns and think that since He is now at home, they should have the lion’s share. After all, Charity they say, begins at home. Seemingly, He rebukes them telling them that faith does not necessarily need to come from home, Israel, – and He uses the example of the Widow and Naaman the leper. Faith does not depend on family and tribal relationships. With God, charity does not necessarily begion at home. It begins wherever human need is found and where people have faith enough to receive it. Like Jeremiah in the first reading, not all Jesus says will be received happily. His own people are not happy with what they hear because He sounds rude to them, and so they want to roll Him down the brink of a hill, but He slips away. Apparently Jesus, begins His cultural revolution from His own hometown.

This scene in Jesus’ hometown can be very disappointing. People who come for worship are so angry at the preacher that they want to kill him. Jesus had reminded them of their low points. Some bitter truth! Sometimes we too are angered, when someone, even a preacher tells us some bitter truth about us we do not want to hear. If Jesus had told them that they were the best people of God, He would have received bouquets and praises and not brickbats, stones and criticisms. But He chose to call a spade a spade. Telling them that God does not have favourites. That no matter who, what and from where, and whatever socio-economic background, God has unconditional love for all. This is the love Paul talks about in the second reading today.

What happened at the synagogue, happens today in some of our church congregations and communities. We sometimes carry prejudices with us into our places of worship. Our caprices and prejudices can be against the priest, the pastor or the preacher who addresses us. It can be against some member of the congregation, some member of the choir, some member of the readers’ club or even against the church hierarchy. A prejudiced mind is uncomfortable in church and fails to receive anything from the service, finds no fulfillment in whorship nor takes home anything apart from increased hatred it brought. The prophet’s job is compromised by our petit mindedness. The prophet criticises injustice and calls for conversion and change.

We are called by God to be His prophets, to take His words on our lips and proclaim them to the whole world. The marks of our prophecy should be unmistakable. In the midst of our unjust societies where the powerful seek their welfare, silencing the suffering of those who mourn, our prophecy should dare to live the reality from the perspective of God’s compassion for the least. But the gift of prophecy is of no avail without the gift of love; a Christ-like love of the world which is proof even against the world’s rejection of us.

It is this love that Paul exhorts us to practice in the second reading. Love that is patient, kind, never jealous, not boastful, not rude, not selfish. Love that does not come to an end. Otherwise the eloquence which we have, the prophecy we do, the faith we practice will do us no good.

One thing should not escape our minds in the Gospel of today. “When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away” Lk 4: 28 – 30.

In his divinity, He slipped away. It will be ironical for us to see danger and stand because we believe in Jesus. We have an obligation to protect the life He gave us and therefore, must escape from any impending danger. Anything otherwise will tantamount to suicide, which is of course, a sin. Fanatics will tell you to face all dangers if you truly believe in Jesus. If you do, it will be nothing less than putting the Lord your God to a test. He already gave you your means to escape from dangers, and so you should.

A Little Prayer.

Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me so much as to call me to spread your word even in the midst of rejection and intimidation. May your Spirit of love continue to lead me as I travel through the land with your words on my lips and your actions from my heart. Amen.

Have a Blessed Week.
Bobe Talla Toh.