Additional insights on the Gospel from Fr. Tony

Today’s first reading prepares us to hear the Gospel, Luke 4:21-30, where Jesus, early in his mission, faces stiff opposition and compares himself to the prophets who had come before him. In both the first reading and the Gospel, we are shown, in Jeremiah and Jesus, God’s prophets (prophetes in Greek means mouthpiece), chosen, consecrated, and sent to their brothers and sisters as emissaries of the Word of God The prophet Jeremiah (600-550 BC) never held back in describing the persecution he suffered. Here in the first sentences of his book, Jeremiah describes how God called him, bolstered up his Faith and courage, and predicted the opposition he would endure. Speaking to Jeremiah, God makes four assertions: “I formed you” (as a potter forms clay), “I knew you” (referring to the intimate relationship between God and Jeremiah), “I dedicated you” (consecrating Jeremiah to do God’s work), and “I appointed you” (to a mission as His prophet to Israel). At the start of Jeremiah’s ministry, Yahweh warns the young prophet not to be intimidated by those to whom he prophesies (Jer 1:4-5, 17-19). “They will fight against you,” Yahweh warns, “but will not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you.” During his lifetime, Jeremiah was considered a total failure, but in later times he has been recognized as one of Israel’s greatest prophets. Jeremiah is a wonderful example of “the triumph of failure.”

Additional insights on the Gospel from Fr. Tony

There were diverse manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit among the Christians living in the Greek seaport of Corinth. Paul spends chapters 12, 13 and 14 of this letter trying to get the Corinthians to enjoy and express their gifts in ways that give strength to the community and glory to God. Paul is addressing a community on the verge of self-destruction because of the Corinthians’ inability to recognize that Jesus is present in each member of the community. So, he advises them to use their spiritual gifts for the unification of the Church, by humble submission to lawful authorities, by bidding farewell to rivalries, and by the re-direction of their efforts toward mutual service. Paul also warns them that, if exercised without love, even the gifts of tongues, knowledge, Faith, prophecy, and generosity are useless. So, he instructs them to recognize Christ in one another and to treat each other accordingly. The only way for them, and for us, to treat others is with love. Paul concludes the chapter by affirming that even the greatest of virtues, Faith and Hope, cannot exist without Love, the driving force of all life in time, and in eternity, “the greatest of these is love.”

Additional insights on the Gospel from Fr. Tony

Amazement turning to hatred:

The first reaction of the people in the Nazareth synagogue to Jesus’ words was one of astonishment. They were amazed that one of their fellow-villagers could speak with such grace and eloquence and with such authority. Luke says they were “amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips,” because they knew Jesus only as a carpenter from a poor family, with no formal training in Mosaic Law. But their amazement turned into displeasure when, during his “Inaugural Address” or “Mission Statement,” Jesus took upon himself the identity of a prophet, different from the image of the miracle-worker that people wished to see. Jesus came to his hometown people as a prophet with healing in his hands, mercy in his heart, and salvation for all in his words. Like the other prophets of the past, Jesus directly called upon people to relinquish their selfishness, their faithlessness, their lack of justice and mercy (Mic 6:6-8), and their sinfulness.

Hence, their displeasure turned into anger when Jesus claimed that he was the promised Messiah of Isaiah’s prophecy. They challenged his Messianic claim, asking, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” They could not understand how a mere carpenter could be the Messiah who would liberate them from Roman rule and reestablish the Davidic kingdom.

The phrase, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ means “Do not be like a bad physician, who professes medical knowledge to his patients but does not know how to treat himself.”(As several commentators point out, the challenge of “Physician, heal yourself!” in Nazareth is probably meant to be paralleled with “If you are the ‘King of the Jews,’ then save yourself,” the taunt at the end of the Gospel, as Jesus hangs on the cross dying. In a sense “Physician, heal yourself” is paralleled with “Saviour, save yourself” Dr. Watson.)Jesus explained their attitude by saying “No prophet is accepted in his native place.” Jesus clearly establishes himself as a figure in the prophetic line, a theme that Luke will highlight repeatedly, in order to show that Jesus is in continuity with (and not a break from), the earlier tradition of Judaism.

Jesus’ reaction to His people’s skepticism:

In response to his townsmen’s skepticism, Jesus referred to the Biblical stories of how God blessed two Gentiles, while rejecting the many Jews in similar situations. The reason for this was that these Gentiles were more open to the prophets than the Jewish people who were wicked and unrepentant. First, Jesus reminded them of the Gentile widow of Zarephath, a village on the coast of present-day Lebanon, near Sidon (1 Kings 17:7-24). The Prophet Elijah stayed with her and her son during last year of the three-and-a-half-year drought that preceded Elijah’s part in the Lord God’s victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Because of her kindness to the prophet, and the Faith her willingness to take him in as God’s messenger demonstrated, the widow’s small jar of flour and tiny jug of oil were never depleted. Later, when the widow’s son died, Elijah’s prayers revived him from the dead. No Israelite received such a blessing.

Naaman’s healing presented as reward of Faith: 

Then Jesus recalled for his listeners of the story of Naaman, the Syrian Military General (II Kgs 7:3-10). Naaman had contracted leprosy. But when he heard that the Prophet Elisha had the power to heal, he appealed to the prophet for help. At Elisha’s word, Naaman bathed seven times in the Jordan, after which his leprosy was healed, and his skin was restored, becoming like that of a child. There were many lepers in Israel at the time, commented Jesus, but only this foreigner was healed because he had Faith in the man of God.

Today, that same healing, mercy, and salvation should be available to all through the Church. “In the minds of his Jewish listeners, it was offense enough to be reminded that Elijah ministered to a poor Gentile widow, but it was intolerable to be oppressed by Roman occupation, and then be reminded that Elisha healed a soldier of Syria, a country which had oppressed Israel in an earlier time.” (Craig A. Evans, The Lectionary Commentary, Vol. 3: The Third Readings, p. 326).

Total rejection and attempted murder:

Jesus’ words also implied that, like the Israelites of those former days, the people of his hometown, were unable to receive miracles because of their disbelief. That was why in former times God had bestowed miracles on the Gentiles who believed in Him. Jesus, like the earlier prophets (Jer 37:12–38:6; Mal 1:2, 6, 7, 13; Mic 3:5-8), dared to speak the Truth to people who did not want to hear it. By using Scriptural precedents, Jesus stresses that, if he does not receive a welcome in, or support from, his own community, he will certainly be well within his rights to extend his ministry beyond the bounds of the Jewish nation, and to reach out to the Gentiles, just as the great prophets of old did. Dr. Brant Pitre paraphrases it, “You, people of Nazareth, are like the wicked Israelites at the time of Eli’jah and Eli’sha. You are going to reject me as a prophet and the blessing and the Good News is going to come from me and it’s going to end up going to pagans. “ Jesus’ reference to the unbelief of the Jews and to the stronger Faith of the Gentiles infuriated his listeners.

Hence, without a trial or even a hearing, and in violation of both Jewish and Roman Law, his townspeople rushed to seize Jesus in order to throw him over the edge of the cliff on which their town was built. (This site cannot be located with any certainty. Tradition, however, associates this account with the cliff called the “Mount of Precipitation/Mount of the Leap,” just under 2 miles outside Nazareth. Others suggest a hill in the ridge of local mountains called the Jebel Nazra, or “Nazareth Hill”). But Jesus miraculously escaped because “his hour had not yet come, ”and, as Jesus said later, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father” (Jn 10:17-18).This rejection of Jesus by his own townsfolk must have sincerely grieved him. Later John wrote, “To his own he came but his own did not accept him” (Jn 1:11). This rejection in Nazareth foreshadowed or anticipated the opposition and rejection that Jesus would experience in the coming years, culminating with his crucifixion.

Additional insights on the Gospel from Fr. Tony

3) We must have the prophetic courage of our convictions. By our Baptism, God calls us to be prophets like Jesus, sharing his prophetic mission.

The task of a prophet is to speak, and to live out, God’s truth. We must never be afraid of this call, for it is Jesus who will supply us with the courage, the words, and the deeds we will need to oppose the many evils in our society. By legalizing abortion in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the killing of over forty-seven million unborn children in forty-nine years. The Roe versus Wade decision is currently permitting the brutal execution of 4400 unborn babies every day. Our television and movie conglomerates, which are supported by the money paid by millions of Americans and many large corporate sponsors, are spewing forth pornographic material that is poisoning our children and our society. Our society tells adults and youngsters that promiscuous sex, drugs, gambling, and alcohol are legitimate pleasures for modern, liberated people. Our country needs to hear God’s Truth from Spirit-filled Christians with the prophetic courage of their convictions. Heroes like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King consistently refused to retaliate violently while affirming the dignity of every person, including their enemies.

4) We need to follow Christ, not political correctness, and to speak the truth of Christ in love, without being hypocritical or disrespectful.

We must never remain silent in the face of evil for fear of being thought “politically incorrect.” Jesus was not against conflict if it promoted truth. He taught us to give respect and freedom without condoning or encouraging sinful behavior. That was the example given by Martin Luther King and his civil rights marchers singing, “We shall overcome,” as they were carted off to jail, were washed down with fire hoses and had savage Alsatian dogs loosed on them. Love does not tolerate destructive behavior, but it sometimes causes pain–just as a surgeon must sometimes hurt in order to heal. We need to be kind, charitable, honest, forgiving, and clear in speaking out our Christian convictions as Jesus was when He spoke in the synagogue. We live in a pluralistic society, but as the American Bishops say in their document Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics “Real pluralism depends on people of conviction struggling to advance their beliefs by every ethical and legal means at their disposal.”