Readings of the day: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Psalm 96:1, 3, 4-5, 11-12, 13; Luke 4:16-30
Monday of the 22nd week in Ordinary Time
This homily was given at St. James Church, Vernon, BC, Canada.
Today, do we not hear Jesus
make a bold statement in Luke’s Gospel? After reading from “the scroll of the
prophet Isaiah” on the Sabbath in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth,
Jesus rolls up the scroll and sits down. Then, with “the eyes of all in the
synagogue… fixed upon him,” Jesus says, “Today
this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
May I ask us, then, what would
be the message that, if we heard it today, would be like that “scripture… fulfilled
in [our] hearing”? Here, would we not want to be somewhat careful, so not to
confuse a message we want to hear with a message we may need to hear?
There is certainly a
distinction in today’s Gospel between the message the people want to hear and the
message they need to hear from Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth. The people
in the synagogue of Nazareth that day were happy with Jesus’ claim to be the
one “anointed… to bring good news to the poor… to proclaim release to the
captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
[and] to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” But what did Jesus’ claim to
be the anointed one to accomplish all this mean? Jesus’ proclamation of “good
news to the poor… release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,”
freedom for the oppressed; Jesus’ proclamation of “the Lord’s favour” was not
to be primarily for the people in the Nazareth synagogue that day. In fact,
Jesus’ proclamation was not to be primarily for the people of Israel, but for
foreigners, just as the Lord’s favour had been for the widow of Zarephath and
Naaman the Syrian in the times of Elijah and Elisha.
The people who heard Jesus in
the synagogue of Nazareth that day changed suddenly from all speaking “well of
Jesus” to trying to “hurl him off [a] cliff.” Jesus’ inclusive offer of “the
Lord’s favour,” not primarily for the people in the synagogue that day or even
for the people of Israel but for foreigners, misfits; those for whatever reason
unworthy of “the Lord’s favour” as Jesus’ hearers understood them, was not what
the people in the synagogue in Nazareth that day wanted to hear. But it was the
message they needed to hear. Not they; not any of us have a monopoly on “the
Lord’s favour.”
Who, then, are “the poor… the
captives… the blind” and “the oppressed” among us today? Who are the widows of
Zarephath and the Naamans among us today, disfavoured because of our individual
if not social prejudices? If Jesus were
to preach on this scripture from Isaiah today, would he not perhaps proclaim
“the Lord’s favour” primarily toward our society’s poorest and most outcast,
perhaps the unborn; refugees and migrants trying to integrate into Canadian
society and our communities; people with disabilities; the elderly and the seriously
ill; people who despair to the point of contemplating ending their lives or
having physicians end their lives for them; people who have committed crimes
and are trying to rebuild their lives and re-integrate into society, and so on.
Who will “proclaim… the Lord’s
favour” to these people? Who will bring hope to those “who have no hope,” in
St. Paul’s words today to the Thessalonians? Who will proclaim the inviolable
dignity of all human life, without exception, even and especially when this
message is ill-received and even ridiculed by people who hear it or see it in
action from us?
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