Year C

4TH SUNDAY
IN ORDINARY TIME

► Text of Sunday Reflection

“Moved by the Spirit”
by Fr Pat Egan SDB

For us, the Word listened to with faith, is a source of spiritual life, food for prayer, light to see God’s will in the events of life, and strength to live out our vocation faithfully.
With the Sacred Scriptures daily in hand, we welcome the Word as Mary did and ponder it in our heart, so that it will bear fruit and we may proclaim it with zeal. (SDB C.87)

I want to look at this Sunday’s Gospel passage from St Luke and see what it says about Jesus; and also look at Don Bosco whose feast is 31 January, to see what the passage tells us about him, and what it might mean for us.

First of all JESUS. Luke presents Jesus as moved by the Spirit and setting out for the villages in Galilee to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God (Lk 4:14). He becomes good news for the poor, the down trodden, the dispossessed, the sick… all those in real need, and they find themselves at the receiving end of love. He becomes a byword all over the district. Finally he arrives in his home town of Nazareth. You can imagine him renewing acquaintances with the lads and neighbours with whom he’d grown up.
On the Saturday after he arrived, he goes to the synagogue as usual. He’s invited to do a reading and he’s given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and he picks out a section that puts into words how he sees what he’s to work at.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted…” and there were many of them! Those who were poor, struggling to make ends meet, those who were robbed with exorbitant taxes, those hit by ill health, those suffering from the Roman domination of their country…
And yet he leaves out the bit in Isaiah about the day of vengeance of the Lord. He’s presenting a God who would give liberty to captives, sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, a year of favour from the Lord. But no vengeance on those they considered their enemies! a picture of God that was going to disturb the status quo.

At first they are astonished by the gracious words he speaks. It’s almost as though they were clamouring for him to show off in his own home town, to dazzle them with more of what they had heard he had done in Caphernaum. But he doesn’t. The kingdom he’s talking about is not promoted by power, domineering authority or dazzling show off, but only by belief and love and acceptance. In fact, at the end of this visit to Nazareth and right to the end of his short life, his way will be opposed and he’ll be rejected and fought against and he will be finally killed! And yet today his words are, God’s Spirit is in my heart, he has called me and set me apart; this is what I have to do, what I have to do: he sent me to bring the good news to the poor…and so on.

Second of all, DON BOSCO:
From his boyhood he was driven by the sense that God wanted him to bring good news to young people, especially those most in need: the ones come from the countryside into the industrialised city of Turin, far from home and family, left or abandoned to their own devices and an easy prey to idleness, exploitation, delinquency and prison. Like Jesus, his heart went out to these boys and girls, young men and women, and he wanted them to be given every opportunity to develop themselves, educate themselves, prepare themselves for life and grow reflect in their own lives the life of Christ as honest citizens and good Christians.

And for US: to follow and live like Christ and Don Bosco, we need to be alive with the same Spirit that burned in them. It means to be renewed in an alive sense of the needs of today’s young people, especially those abandoned to their own devices, whose needs get ignored or dismissed, and to bring them what will prove to be good news for them, an experience to provide them with what they need and prepare them to take their rightful place in life and that can reveal to them that Father whose bowels were so moved when one of his sons came to his senses and realised what his Father’s kingdom was really about – a kingdom of love, compassion, forgiveness, human dignity, fraternity and divine sonship.

► Readings, Reflections & Prayers

Scripture readings: Association for Catholic Priests
– www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie
Reflections and Prayers by Fr Jack Finnegan SDB

1st Reading – Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” But you, gird up your loins; stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not break down before them, or I will break you before them. And I for my part have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall, against the whole land-against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.

Reflection

Today we meditate on Jeremiah’s prophetic call. The story is told in the form of a dialogue with the Lord. Notice that it is a call from the womb, itself a symbol of God’s presence in human history from the very beginning. Though precise, the story portrays the dynamics of the call, the prophet’s own struggle to accept his call, and the clarity of God’s beneficial purpose. It also symbolises the very distinctive role played by the prophets in the prophetic mission “to the nations” – I have set you for a prophet to the Gentiles – a mission that knows no limits and embraces the whole of reality. True prophecy has international implications. Today’s gospel also draws our attention to the role of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. When we bring these two readings together we are drawn to the call of Jesus himself. Just as Jeremiah is warned of the opposition he must face, so too Jesus and all who seek to live prophetic lives face a rocky road. The same is true of anyone who would speak out for justice and truth or engage in advocacy for the deprived and the homeless. Have we the courage to stand with God? Have we the prophetic courage to stand for global justice?

Prayer

LORD, Adonai, you know us from our mothers’ wombs. You know us through and through. You love us and encourage us to be prophets to the world in which we live. You grace us to be people of compassion and generosity. You call us to be people who care for justice and equality in the world. You want us to be people like Jesus who stand for what is right. You promise us strength to face the opposition we inevitably face. We trust your word: be with us as we struggle to do what is right and just for all. Now and forever. Amen.

Psalm 71:1-6, 15-17

Reflection

Psalm 71 is most likely the song-lament of an elderly person facing illness. The poet begins the lament by seeking God as safe refuge and wonderful Bringer of deliverance. The images of God in this song are inspiring: not only rock, fortress, stronghold, and rescuer, but hope, strength, and trust. A clear message shines through: GOD is with us every step of the way, when things are bright and when things are dark, guiding us, sheltering us, and loving us. The song concludes with a delightful promise: to praise God’s justice and saving power and to keep on proclaiming God’s wonders. How do we see God? What sort of image of God influences us? How do we respond to God’s wonders in our own lives? Do we notice the link between justice and healing? Do we keep our promises to sing God’s praise and glory?

Prayer

LORD, Adonai, you are our wonderful refuge! Rescue us from the ills that assail us! Deliver us from the hand of the wicked! Be our strength in these dark times. Be our rock, our fortress, our safety! Be our hope, our stronghold and our rescuer. Be the one in whom we trust! Set our hearts on fire! Hear our hymns of praise today! Listen to our joyful songs as we acclaim your merciful love! You are with us every step of the way. You are there when things are bright. You are there when things are dark, guiding us, sheltering us, and loving us. Seal us with your Spirit to proclaim your wondrous love. Now and forever. Amen.

2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Reflection

Are we ready for the challenge of Paul’s amazing hymn to love? Set against the background of charismatic gifts and the triad of faith, hope and charity, Paul confronts us with the inspiring beauty of the core Christian conviction: the transforming excellence, vibrancy and integrity of love. Scholars tend to divide the poem into four parts. In the first and third parts the charismatic gifts continue to echo. Note also the use of the word “I” in the first and third parts to represent each one of us as we read and reflect on the poem. The second part celebrates the truly radical self-transcending qualities of love. And the fourth part brings the poem to a resounding conclusion as it honours the enduring greatness of love. Using Paul’s hymn as an examen of consciousness how do we personally measure up to his awesome account of love? Remember: life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the loving moments that take our breath away!

Prayer

Lord Jesus, please water and nourish the roots of goodwill within us. Mould us in your breath-taking love. Fan into flame the gift of your Spirit so that we may do all things in love! Remind us again that without love we drink the cup of emptiness and heartache. Without love we become harsh: clanging bells, grating noise, disruptive cacophonies of discord. Let awareness of your love take our breath away today and remind us that love grounded in you never fails. Amen.

Gospel Reading: Luke 4:21-30

Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Reflection

Last Sunday we meditated on the first part of Jesus’ startling sermon on Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth. Today we meditate on the second part. The people are astonished and perplexed because they know Jesus and his family. Then comes the rejecting proverb, Physician heal thyself! It is found only here. In the face of such a reaction, coupled with the attempt to hurl him from the cliff that concludes the passage, is it any wonder Jesus calls attention to the miracles for Gentiles performed by Elijah and Elisha? Can you hear the living echoes of Jeremiah’s universal call? What about Luke’s insistence that Jesus was conceived, anointed, filled and sealed by the Spirit? The core of the message is simplicity itself: because of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah, the Gospel goes forth to the Gentile world. How are we to understand the consequences for an Ireland that in its turn joins that wave of rejection? Are we open to the Spirit or to the desires of the world?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, the people in your home synagogue, people who knew you well, rejected you and tried to kill you because you disturbed them with your prophetic words. Disturb us today that in your never-ending love we may embrace life to the full, to your eternal measure! Lead us beyond self-preoccupation and illusion today. Heal us and help us to throw off our selfish fear. Open our minds and hearts to the astonishing dreams shared by your prophets. Make us a people of praise! Amen.

► Lectio Divina

This Gospel passage is a continuation of last Sunday’s. It records the first time Jesus preached in the synagogue at Nazareth. In the presence of his own townsmen, during their weekly prayer assembly, Jesus was keen to present himself as the one who fulfils the Scripture passage that he had just taught, the one who received a unique gift of grace. He was the one who satisfied all the hope of salvation on which God’s chosen people had been nourished from time immemorial. The reaction of his listeners was completely understandable.  They asked themselves if they could believe what they heard from one of themselves, whom they knew well, a son of the people like so many others, the son of Joseph, who now dared to present himself as the one who fulfilled God’s promise.

If he did not work one of his wonders in their presence, as it was rumoured he had done in other parts of Galilee, it would be very difficult for them to believe him.

Jesus had lived in their midst for a long time with no sign of his miraculous power, and without revealing any awareness that he was the Son of God. Surprisingly, Jesus denied his own people what he had granted to strangers. He refused to give them signs that might have given credibility to his words and won him acceptance. Jesus worked no miracle among his own people, because they did not believe in his words.

Read: understand what the text is saying, focussing on how it says it

The text seems authentic, especially if we consider its immediate context. Basing himself on Scripture, Jesus declares that he is the one who fulfils the divine promises. He not only reads and explains the Scriptures – he fulfils them! He reacts strongly to a reasonable objection from the townspeople.

The structure of the episode is clear enough, but the line of argument is not very logical. It passes from the proclamation made by Jesus to a question about his family of origin (Lk.4, 22). What they know about him leads them to doubt what he says. The admiration caused by his words makes their incredulity all the greater. Jesus interprets their question as a concealed request for a miracle of the kind expected from a prophet. It is not the first time that God has done this to his people. Elijah and Elisha were sent to those who least expected them and least deserved them (Lk 4, 24-17). His words provoked an unexpected response. The townspeople went from admiration to an attempt on his life (Lk 4, 29). It is tragic to note that those who were best prepared to receive Jesus lost their chance, lost Jesus, and they themselves were lost.

It could happen that Christians today act in the same way and suffer the same fate. If we require proof before we accept Jesus, or if we believe we know all about him because he is already familiar to us, we run the risk of losing him. Anyone who puts conditions on Jesus, places himself beyond his promises. The people who think they know all about him will not witness miracles.

Meditate: apply what the text says to life

Jesus presents himself to his townspeople as the one who fulfils the promises of God. This seemingly exaggerated claim leads to a predictable reaction. Few of them believe him, simply because he is one of themselves. They do not refuse totally to accept him, but they demand proof. They want to see a sign, a miracle like those he was said to have worked among other people who did not know him as well as they did. When you think about it, they seem to have had good reason. He had lived a long time among them without giving any indication of his power to work miracles. He had done nothing to reveal his nature as the Son of God. By reminding them of the mission of two great prophets among the pagans, Jesus was warning them that they might lose the opportunity of believing in him and finding salvation in him. The Christians of today are given the same warning.

Jesus’ way of behaving is rather strange! He demands more of the people who know him than of strangers. He expects less of those who are far away than he does of the people who are near. This may seem surprising, but there is hidden here one of the laws of the way God deals with us. Like the fellow citizens of Jesus, Christians think they know God too well. Because we think we know beforehand what God can do for us, we remain limited in our expectations of him.

We take for granted the things we hope for from God since we have known him always, and this makes it impossible for us to believe in what he promises.  Our knowledge of God is limited. He is not at our service as much as we may think or wish, and we do not allow him to be what he wants to be for us. We do not allow him to do what he wants to do in us, simply because we do not allow him to surprise us with his promises. We deny him the right to let us discover today something new that we were incapable of imagining yesterday.

Our faith life becomes boring and lacking in motivation. We have become used to a God who no longer surprises us … because we know him too well. We do not dare to think that God will satisfy our deepest desires, and so we are convinced that it is not worthwhile nurturing them. We take it for granted that, as far as faith is concerned, tomorrow will be the same as today. We are convinced that the future that awaits us will not be very different from the past we have known.

We do not seem to realize that by thinking we already know God, we miss out on the chance to get to know him truly. His townspeople lost their opportunity, because they thought they already knew him well.

We run the same risk when we get too accustomed to God, and he becomes so familiar that we are unable to believe in his promises. Up to now, we have not been able to enjoy to the full all he has promised, but this is a reason to hope still that his promises will be fulfilled.

Maybe we think we have not received from God all we had hoped for, or that, somehow, he has not been as good to us as we expected. If so, let this be one more motive to pray and to live in hope. As with the people of Nazareth, our knowledge of Jesus and our belief that he is one of us, hinders us from getting to know him better as the God who wants to be with us. And like them, we also ask for extraordinary signs to make it easier for us to believe.

We have known him from our infancy and have come to regard him as a familiar friend. We may think it unfair that he does not work miracles for us, like the miracles he works for others who do not know him as well as we do. We fail to realize that asking God for miracles is a sign that we doubt him. If we want proof in order to believe, it means we do not trust what he says. Trusting in him alone means recognising that he is always extraordinary, even in the most ordinary things.

Like the townspeople of Jesus long ago, we may lose the best of what God wants to give us. We think we know God well, and we ask him for what we think is good for us. The truth is that he wants to give us something far better. He knows what is best for us. Asking God for a sign is asking him to identify himself, and to impose himself on us as our God. This is the best way to lose him. The people of Nazareth asked for proof, and they missed out on the salvation Jesus was offering.

We have to accept God for what he is and what he wants to be for us – not for what we want him to be or what we want him to do for us.

One way to lose God is to accept him only for what he does for us. We must accept God in our lives as he is and as he wants to be for us – not because of what we hope for, or the way we would like him to act towards us.

The people who knew him best, who came from the same town, were incapable of recognising him as their Saviour. They even tried to get rid of him. He was one of themselves and they had no need of him. They felt they were being denied the wonders Jesus had done in other places. This was a tragedy, and it is a serious warning for us today. The temptation to get rid of Jesus may also enter our hearts when we think we already know all about the God we believe in, and we are afraid that he might surprise us with new demands or new gifts.

The temptation to think we can do without God comes when we start to think that he is withholding from us the proofs of his love. We compare ourselves with others of lesser faith and we feel overlooked and become disillusioned. Do we not, at times, ask ourselves: what is the point of remaining faithful to a God who never gives us clear proof of his love?. Does it not sometimes seem to us that God pays more attention and grants more favours to those who are far removed from him? Like the people of Nazareth, we try in vain to get rid of a God who does not bend to our will, who does not give the proof of his love that we hope for, who does not serve us as we  would like. That kind of God is no use to us.

Unfortunately, we forget that it is a waste of time trying to get rid of God. God will do as Jesus did on the brow of the hill and simply walk away from us.

If we do not accept God as he wants to be for us, we will lose him forever. God will always be the kind of God he wants to be. Let’s not deceive ourselves! If we think we already know God, we will not draw close to him. We should not ignore what he demands of us, nor should we ask for signs that he does not want to give. In this way, we can be sure that we will not lose him as his townspeople did. The worst thing that could befall us would be to exclude God from our lives because he does not serve us in the way we want.