Fourth Sunday in OT
C 2022
This past
week on Tuesday, we celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul in which
he encountered the Lord after being thrown to the ground. The Lord said to Paul: “Saul, Saul why are
you persecuting me?” This was the
beginning of his marvelous conversion, and he then went to Damascus and was
aided by his soul friend Ananias.
This leads
us to ask the question: “Have you encountered the Lord in a way that has
changed your life?” This question may
take your breath away but without any doubt the Lord wishes to encounter each
and every one of us.
So, as to an
inventory of our human condition, are we reluctant disciples of the Lord Jesus
who have trouble recognizing how the Lord wishes to encounter us? On a scale of 1-10, how do you rate yourself
witnessing to the love and the presence of God in your life? What gets in the way of you witnessing to the
love of God in all the relations of your life?
Is being in Church for one hour a week the beginning or the completion
of your weekly discipleship of the Lord Jesus?
I guess we
must all confess to some degree that we are reluctant disciples. We still wrestle with self-centeredness and
some demons that can get the best of us.
Too much stuff in the human condition gets in our way that keeps from
recognizing the ways the Lord is present to us.
In our
Scripture readings, we encounter reluctant disciples.
In today’s First
Scripture reading, Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet. He thought it was too young and too
ill-equipped for this commitment. He
also feared rejection, that his voice would not be listened to. So he wanted to head in the other direction
when the Lord was calling him to be a prophet.
Can we
identify with Jeremiah in our discipleship?
How much does a fear of failure, a fear of rejection keep us from
standing up for what is right. Many of
us like to be liked and thus do not wish to take a courageous commitment in
standing up for a Gospel way of living.
But today’s
first Scripture reading gives a message of hope from God to Jeremiah. God said: “Before I formed you in the womb, I
knew you. Before you were born, I
dedicated you, a prophet to the nations, I appointed you…For I am with you.”
Do you
believe these words of God were also spoken to you? Before I formed you, I knew you. You are precious and glorious in my sight, and
I am with you. These words are spoken to
us to assure that our future is full of hope.
We have
nothing to fear.
In the
sacrament of baptism in which James and Liam are about to receive, the grace of
baptism is that we are God’s beloved sons and God’s beloved daughters. James and Liam are about to receive the love
and the life of Christ Jesus. The
incredible grace of baptism is that God has first loved us and his love for us
will never come to an end. As St Paul
says in the second reading today, “Love never fails.”
This Liturgy initiates Catholic School’s week in our
diocese. We in our parish are blessed
with St Joseph’s School. We seek to
develop in our students a faith-filled vision on the ways we encounter God in
our lives. We seek to cultivate a
spiritual awareness of God’s presence in our life, how we can allow ourselves
to be loved by God.
The people of Nazareth in today’s Gospel were not able to
recognize Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
At St Joseph’s school, we seek to provide our students with spiritual
eyeglasses to see how God’s love goes with us from moment to moment, from day
to day. Our students pray with an
attitude of gratitude giving thanks to God for the many blessings of our lives.
Yes, like Jeremiah,
the apostle Paul and Jesus himself, we will experience rejection at times.
· When we are not accepted or
understood by someone in our family of origin.
· When we do not get the job that seems
to be a right fit for us.
· When we don’t feel we belong in a
particular group?
· When our vision for our Church is not
accepted or embraced?
How we deal
with rejection is an important part of the spiritual journey of each one of us.
In today’s
Gospel, Jesus had to deal with rejection.
Last week when Jesus was invited to read and preach in the synagogue at
Nazareth. Jesus read from the scroll of
the prophet Isaiah about the coming of the Messiah. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. For he has anointed me. These people knew this reading referred to
the Messiah who is to come. Everyone praised Jesus
for preaching about the coming of the Messiah.[FJS1]
But
everything suddenly changed: When Jesus
said today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing, Jesus was claiming to
the Messiah.
The
synagogue was stunned. He said what? He
has grown up in their midst. He was the carpenter’s son. The one they used to seek weekly in this same
synagogue.
Why in the
world would a local man come up with such a bizarre story? Of course, the people of Nazareth thought
they were putting a local upstart in his place.
The sad irony is that they were rejecting God.
For Jesus,
this awareness was growing in him since his baptism by John the Baptist. At his baptism, he heard the voice of the God
the Father: “You are my beloved son and in your I am well pleased.”
He then fled
into the desert to pray and was tempted by the devil. But the Spirit of God was with Jesus in the
midst of these temptations.
As Jesus
came back from to Nazareth, he was claiming his identity as equality with God
when he spoke in the synagogue at Nazareth.
But we can legitimately ask:
how could the people of Nazareth supposed to
have an understanding of this man they knew so well to be the Messiah?
He was just one of us.
That’s the mystery of it all.
There was nothing exceptional about Jesus.
We sometimes find ourselves in that same quandary. We just go day to day in our lives from one
thing to another, fulfilling our daily responsibilities. But are we not caught speechless if we are
asked: Have we encountered in a way that
has changed our lives? There is too much
routine in our lives to say we have had any dramatic conversion moments.
As was true for the hometown folks of Nazareth, we too
need to change our mindset on how we are to encounter the Lord. It is where we least expect; it is in the
ordinary moments of life; it is in the relationships that are a part of your
life right now that God is present.
In fact, the astounding truth that God is present to
us 24 hours a day, seven a week.
We ask for the faith-filled awareness of how the
Spirit of God is within us and how the Spirit is present to us in every life
challenge and how the Lord is present in each relationship of your life. We need that kind of trust that comes from
our faith to believe nothing is too ordinary for God to encounter us.
Remember that the Lord of the universe revealed himself
to us as a helpless infant in the Bethlehem stable. This same Jesus wishes to encounter us in the
simplicity of our daily lives.
So, to the question:
Have you encountered the Lord in a way that has changed your life? Pay attention to the specific circumstances
of your life. They do not happen by
accident. Rather, your challenges and
routine of this day is the privileged way the Lord wishes to encounter you
today. May you look at life with
faith-filled eyes.
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