In today’s gospel we hear the last
line from last week’s gospel repeated: today this scripture passage is fulfilled
in your hearing. Every time I hear that passage
I’m filled with a sense of awe. Imagine
being there, hearing the words of the prophet read by Jesus, imagine looking
upon the Son of God and being there when he reveals to the world that he has
come on a mission from God to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind,
a time of prosperity. We almost expect
everyone in the synagogue to stand up all at once, to start cheering, and to
follow Jesus as his disciples. Instead,
Jesus is greeted with a terribly lukewarm reception: who does this guy think he
is? We know where he comes from, come on
he’s no prophet…
We see in this story the prophet’s
dilemma. Called from among human beings,
the prophet is called to speak on behalf of God to those same human
beings. This is a difficult and
challenging thing to do. I for one find
it somewhat comforting to hear that even Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the
Word of the Father, was greeted with a lackluster, lukewarm kind of
reception. But, Jesus is not deterred. He perseveres in his mission to proclaim the
good news.
I think this story refers to each
of us in a way. First of all, what kind
of reception do we give Jesus? Is our
response lukewarm? When we hear the good
news proclaimed to us, do we accept it as it is, the good news of our
salvation?
But, I think this passage might
also encourage us as we live out our own prophetic calling. I’m sure most of us do not remember, but on
the day of our baptism we were anointed with Holy Chrism with the words: just
as Christ was anointed priest, prophet, and king, so may you live always as a
member of his holy people, sharing everlasting life. Everyone one of us is called to be a
prophet. If we do not tell the story of
Jesus to others, no one will hear it.
Telling others about Jesus is a fundamental part of what it means to be
Christian.
But that gets me back to the reception
that Jesus gets in the gospel story.
Even Jesus Christ himself received a lukewarm kind of reception, so we
can expect the same thing. Especially in
today’s world, religion is something private and personal. Not only might each of us be intimidated to
share the faith with others, but most people do not want to hear about it. It is perfectly fine for you to believe what
you want, and it is fine for me to believe what I want, and neither one of us
should talk to each other about what we believe. But this individualism is not good for us,
God saves us as a people, we are all the body of Christ and together, not
individually, will we find salvation.
So, how to be a prophet? Look to the example of Jesus, he was
undeterred, he was sure of himself and confident of his relationship with the
Father. Therefore, no matter what
happened, he was able to continue in his mission. We too should be confident in our
relationship with God, and we should be sure of the teachings of our faith. Being a prophet really begins with being a
follower of Jesus, of welcoming him and his message into our lives, so that we
can share it with others.
What a beautiful reading we have
from St. Paul today. Love is patient,
love is kind. In other words, Love is
what Jesus shows us on the cross. Jesus
lays his life down for all of us, and he asks us to love others as he loved
us. Isn’t this a great message that our
world needs to hear? Namely, that the
pathway to happiness not only in this life but in the life to come is found not
in trying to grab and possess, but in giving of ourselves to others. First, we must come to believe this message,
then we live this message, then, undeterred, we will have the courage to share
this message with others.
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