1st Sunday of Lent
C cycle
Reading 1. Deuteronomy 26: 4-10
Reading II. Romans 10: 8-13
Gospel. Luke 4: 1-13 (Temptation in the Desert)
As we begin the season of Lent today's first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy reminds us to look back and reflect on who we are and where we came from. It doesn't take much of an imagination for us to realize how close we are to the Israelites in the time of Moses. After bringing up their offerings to the altar, Moses tells them to declare:
My father was a wandering Aramean
who went down to Egypt with a small household
and lived there as an alien.
Most of us are descendants of aliens who came to America in the last two centuries. Like the Israelites, our ancestors were fleeing oppression and hunger at home and they thought that America was a "land flowing with milk and honey." Like the Israelites they brought their God and their religion with them even though both encountered prejudice and opposition. They built families, homes, schools, and churches and handed down to their children a better life than they had ever known. They became in the words of the Bible a "nation great, strong and numerous."
.
There was always the danger that success might tempt us to turn our backs on God and our religion and make us forget where we came from and where we are going. Temptation is the subject of today's gospel. Even though the gospel readings go through a three year cycle, the reading for the first Sunday of Lent is always the account of our Lord's temptation in the desert.
Luke begins this account by noting that Jesus, "filled with the Holy Spirit," returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil." This episode then follows almost immediately upon the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan where a voice from Heaven had proclaimed, "Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased."
Luke says that Jesus fasted for 40 days and then the devil appeared to Him and presented Him with three different temptations. Lucky for us that we are such small fry or such easy marks that the devil doesn't have to personally bother with us. Our temptations are not so dramatic. One of the greatest Christian authors of the last century, C.S. Lewis, wrote a book entitled, "The Screwtape Letters," in which he described how a petty bureaucrat from Hell tried to tempt a young man with the mundane, ordinary temptations that we all experience in our lives.
Nevertheless, the Devil tempts Jesus in ways that we all can understand. Please note however that despite all attempts today to glamorize the Devil, our tradition has always believed that he is a liar. In fact, he cannot help but lie or otherwise distort the Truth. Even when he quotes Scripture, as he does here, he cannot help but twist the meaning. By the way all of our Lord's responses are quotes from the Book of Deuteronomy, the source of today's first reading. Our Lord is the Truth, the Devil represents the complete absence of Truth.
The first temptation deals with our basic human needs. Of course, it's not just about food and hunger. It's about all the things that we think that we must have to sustain our standard of living. Maybe we don't all want to be millionaires but we all know how the frantic search for the things of this world can destroy our basic human relationships. As our Lord said, "One does not live on bread alone."
The second temptation deals with the search for "power and glory." Lying again, the Devil claims that all the kingdoms in the world have been given to him and that he will give them to Jesus "if you worship me." Every day in the newspapers we read about some politician, CEO, athlete or entertainer who is in trouble with the law. Most of us are not such big shots but we know of the power struggles that go on in our own families, our schoolyards, our businesses and even in our churches.
At the Jordan John the Baptist said that he must diminish so that the Lord could increase. It is just the opposite with the search for "power and glory." Again from Deuteronomy;
You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve." What more incentive do we need to attend Mass this Lent!
In the third temptation the devil takes our Lord to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem looking down over the parapet 450 feet straight down to the Kidron valley. He says prove your faith in God by throwing yourself down for doesn't Scripture say angels will support you. He quotes the Psalm we used in today's Mass and from which the popular hymn "On Eagles' wings" is taken. Jesus says that spectacular stunts are not the way we prove our faith. Do not tempt the Lord your God.
About faith it would be good to go back to today's second reading from St. Paul.
"if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.
It doesn't matter whether we're Jew or Greek, or whether our ancestors came from a county in Ireland, or a town in Italy, or a tribe in Africa, or a village in Asia, for "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
C cycle
Reading 1. Jeremiah 17: 5-8.
Reading II. I Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20.
Gospel. Luke 6: 17, 20-26 (Beatitudes)
One of the problems that the Church faces today is that we have lost the meaning of words which were once perfectly clear. For example, I think that "salvation" is one of these words. I would bet that most people don't think of salvation as a goal. However, if we were to discover that salvation only means "happiness" then it's a different story. Who wouldn't want to be happy, especially if the happiness was forever or eternal.
How many best sellers today deal with the search for happiness? How many TV programs are devoted to the same subject? Yet today, despite our advanced technology, our great wealth, and our educational achievements, there is still so much unhappiness in our world.
.
Happiness is the subject of today's readings from Scripture. It has been said that there are three steps on the stairway to happiness. First, we have to recognize that we can't achieve it on our own. We are finite or imperfect. We just are not equipped with the ability or the tools to do it on our own. This is the message of the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah. In fact, it is the principal message of all the great Old Testament prophets.
Cursed (or unhappy) is the one who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the Lord....
Blessed (or happy) is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose hope is the Lord.
In other words, when we seek happiness through money or power or fame or sex or recognition we are bound to fail. Just read the newspapers every day. I know someone who hates her job so much that it is literally making her physically and psychologically ill. Yet, she can't bring herself to leave it because even though she is financially secure, she thinks she needs even more money. She is so unhappy!
In the gospel today Luke brings us the famous Sermon on the Mount. Right before today's reading our Lord had gone up to a mountain to pray. Afterwards he had called his disciples to him and chosen twelve to be His apostles. That's where we begin today. "Jesus came down with the twelve" and began to teach "a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of people" who had come from near and far to hear this wonder worker.
He preaches the "Beatitudes." Beatitude, blessed, bliss all mean happiness. The second step to happiness is to be open to the truth when we hear it. Whenever Jesus speaks to his disciples, we can be sure that He is speaking to us. Luke says "raising his eyes toward his disciples he said,
Blessed (or Happy) are you who are poor...
Blessed (or Happy) are you who are now hungry...
Blessed (or Happy) are you who are now weeping...
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
The road to happiness is not the easy road. Once we're open to the Truth we can then take the third step and apply it in our own lives. The man who marries must give up his own ambitions and dreams, his own life, for his wife: and she must do so also. Parents give up their lives for their children. Who ever said that would be easy? Priests and religious give up their lives in the service of others. St. Paul says that single people even have a greater responsibility or opportunity for self sacrificing love.
I know that today there are many people both Christian and non-Christian who regard Jesus as only a teacher albeit one of the great ones in human history. I suppose that if such people would only follow the teachings of Jesus they would then be able to lead happy and productive lives. However, this point of view tends to downplay the importance and significance of our Lord's Passion, Death, and Resurrection. I think that part of the concern about the film, The Passion of the Christ, stems from an unwillingness to face the fact that Christ was crucified and that He then rose from the dead.
No one in history appreciated the teaching of Jesus more than St. Paul. But Paul always insisted that his preaching was about Christ crucified, and that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then His teachings alone could not have brought us happiness. As he said to the Corinthians in today's reading, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain..." For us like the early Christians in Corinth this is a great mystery. Why did Jesus have to suffer and die? But for St. Paul Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Jewish prophecies. Christ's resurrection was the proof that He was the Lord of Jeremiah and the other prophets. He suffered to bring us happiness.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose hope is the Lord.
C cycle
Reading 1. Jeremiah 17: 5-8.
Reading II. I Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20.
Gospel. Luke 6: 17, 20-26 (Beatitudes)
One of the problems that the Church faces today is that we have lost the meaning of words which were once perfectly clear. For example, I think that "salvation" is one of these words. I would bet that most people don't think of salvation as a goal. However, if we were to discover that salvation only means "happiness" then it's a different story. Who wouldn't want to be happy, especially if the happiness was forever or eternal.
How many best sellers today deal with the search for happiness? How many TV programs are devoted to the same subject? Yet today, despite our advanced technology, our great wealth, and our educational achievements, there is still so much unhappiness in our world.
.
Happiness is the subject of today's readings from Scripture. It has been said that there are three steps on the stairway to happiness. First, we have to recognize that we can't achieve it on our own. We are finite or imperfect. We just are not equipped with the ability or the tools to do it on our own. This is the message of the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah. In fact, it is the principal message of all the great Old Testament prophets.
Cursed (or unhappy) is the one who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the Lord....
Blessed (or happy) is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose hope is the Lord.
In other words, when we seek happiness through money or power or fame or sex or recognition we are bound to fail. Just read the newspapers every day. I know someone who hates her job so much that it is literally making her physically and psychologically ill. Yet, she can't bring herself to leave it because even though she is financially secure, she thinks she needs even more money. She is so unhappy!
In the gospel today Luke brings us the famous Sermon on the Mount. Right before today's reading our Lord had gone up to a mountain to pray. Afterwards he had called his disciples to him and chosen twelve to be His apostles. That's where we begin today. "Jesus came down with the twelve" and began to teach "a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of people" who had come from near and far to hear this wonder worker.
He preaches the "Beatitudes." Beatitude, blessed, bliss all mean happiness. The second step to happiness is to be open to the truth when we hear it. Whenever Jesus speaks to his disciples, we can be sure that He is speaking to us. Luke says "raising his eyes toward his disciples he said,
Blessed (or Happy) are you who are poor...
Blessed (or Happy) are you who are now hungry...
Blessed (or Happy) are you who are now weeping...
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
The road to happiness is not the easy road. Once we're open to the Truth we can then take the third step and apply it in our own lives. The man who marries must give up his own ambitions and dreams, his own life, for his wife: and she must do so also. Parents give up their lives for their children. Who ever said that would be easy? Priests and religious give up their lives in the service of others. St. Paul says that single people even have a greater responsibility or opportunity for self sacrificing love.
I know that today there are many people both Christian and non-Christian who regard Jesus as only a teacher albeit one of the great ones in human history. I suppose that if such people would only follow the teachings of Jesus they would then be able to lead happy and productive lives. However, this point of view tends to downplay the importance and significance of our Lord's Passion, Death, and Resurrection. I think that part of the concern about the film, The Passion of the Christ, stems from an unwillingness to face the fact that Christ was crucified and that He then rose from the dead.
No one in history appreciated the teaching of Jesus more than St. Paul. But Paul always insisted that his preaching was about Christ crucified, and that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then His teachings alone could not have brought us happiness. As he said to the Corinthians in today's reading, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain..." For us like the early Christians in Corinth this is a great mystery. Why did Jesus have to suffer and die? But for St. Paul Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Jewish prophecies. Christ's resurrection was the proof that He was the Lord of Jeremiah and the other prophets. He suffered to bring us happiness.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose hope is the Lord.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
C cycle
Reading 1. Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8.
Reading II. I Corinthians 15: 1-11
Gospel. Luke 5: 1-11 (Fishers of Men).
Today might very well be called Vocation Sunday. The word vocation comes from the Latin word "vocare" which means to call. In each of the readings today, someone is called and in each case it is someone who feels unworthy or unable.
In the first reading Isaiah has a vision of the heavenly Throne surrounded by angels and he is filled with fear. Isaiah says,
Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips....
.
Then one of the angels ( angels are always sent by God) around the throne flies to him and touches his mouth with a flaming ember and heals him. "See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged." Then Isaiah hears the Lord asking, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" and answers the call, "Here I am,...send me!"
In today's gospel from Luke, chapter 5, we hear the story of the calling of the first Apostles, in particular, Peter. Now in the previous chapter Luke recounted that Jesus had already worked his healing powers on many people in Galilee. It was this reason that led the people to crowd around him at the lakeside. One of his cures had been Peter's own mother-in-law and so it's no wonder that Peter allowed our Lord to use his boat and followed his directions.
I love St. Peter. He is always impetuous, headstrong, and without guile. He is the prototype of all the great comic sidekicks in literature, from Don Quixote's Sancho Panza to Luke Skywalker's robots. "No, master," they always say, "we can't go there, we can't do that." In this case Peter thinks that the Lord is being a little impractical when He asks him to put out into the deep and lower his nets. "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,..."
Peter's astonishment at the incredible catch of fish reminds us of the fear that Isaiah felt. He falls at the knees of Jesus and says, "Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man." Jesus answers with the famous call, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." I must confess that in this instance I prefer the old translation, where these fishermen are called to be "Fishers of Men."
Whatever the translation, they still responded to the call--"they left everything and followed Him."
Finally, in the second reading St. Paul reminds the Corinthians of his own calling. Recalling all those who had seen Christ after His Resurrection, he says.
Last of all...he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
Isaiah, Peter, Paul, they all recognized their unworthiness or weakness, but all came to realize that God's grace would give them the strength. As Paul said, "I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
We would make a mistake if we believed that vocations are only for priests and religious. Peter, James, and John were fisherman. Paul although extremely well educated was a tentmaker by trade. Today's readings are for all of us. We all have our vocation or calling in life.
Another mistake would be to think that we're not ready or prepared. Who would ever enter into one of life's great callings if they had the slightest idea of the trails and tribulations that they would encounter on life's journey? Peter and Paul did not go through a long period of training or study before they were called. That would come afterwards. When our Lord appeared to them they recognized that they were not ready but they couldn't resist Him.
Finally, another mistake would be to look inside of us for the call. Today's readings tell us that the call will usually come from outside. Our Lord appears to Peter at the side of the lake and to Paul on the road to Damascus. We should not expect to hear some kind of inner voice. In another place in the gospels our Lord tells us that when we did the least thing for one of our brothers, we did it for Him. In the same way when we hear someone asking us to do something or to undertake some task, we might consider that the Lord is speaking through them.
I'll never forget my dear aunt Nan. She had no children of her own but when my mother died when I was only 11 she stepped up and became a virtual mother to myself and my two younger brothers. Didn't the Lord speak to her through her widowed brother and three young nephews. Like Isaiah she responded, "Here I am."
If today you hear His Voice, harden not your hearts.
C cycle
Reading 1. Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8.
Reading II. I Corinthians 15: 1-11
Gospel. Luke 5: 1-11 (Fishers of Men).
Today might very well be called Vocation Sunday. The word vocation comes from the Latin word "vocare" which means to call. In each of the readings today, someone is called and in each case it is someone who feels unworthy or unable.
In the first reading Isaiah has a vision of the heavenly Throne surrounded by angels and he is filled with fear. Isaiah says,
Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips....
.
Then one of the angels ( angels are always sent by God) around the throne flies to him and touches his mouth with a flaming ember and heals him. "See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged." Then Isaiah hears the Lord asking, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" and answers the call, "Here I am,...send me!"
In today's gospel from Luke, chapter 5, we hear the story of the calling of the first Apostles, in particular, Peter. Now in the previous chapter Luke recounted that Jesus had already worked his healing powers on many people in Galilee. It was this reason that led the people to crowd around him at the lakeside. One of his cures had been Peter's own mother-in-law and so it's no wonder that Peter allowed our Lord to use his boat and followed his directions.
I love St. Peter. He is always impetuous, headstrong, and without guile. He is the prototype of all the great comic sidekicks in literature, from Don Quixote's Sancho Panza to Luke Skywalker's robots. "No, master," they always say, "we can't go there, we can't do that." In this case Peter thinks that the Lord is being a little impractical when He asks him to put out into the deep and lower his nets. "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,..."
Peter's astonishment at the incredible catch of fish reminds us of the fear that Isaiah felt. He falls at the knees of Jesus and says, "Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man." Jesus answers with the famous call, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." I must confess that in this instance I prefer the old translation, where these fishermen are called to be "Fishers of Men."
Whatever the translation, they still responded to the call--"they left everything and followed Him."
Finally, in the second reading St. Paul reminds the Corinthians of his own calling. Recalling all those who had seen Christ after His Resurrection, he says.
Last of all...he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
Isaiah, Peter, Paul, they all recognized their unworthiness or weakness, but all came to realize that God's grace would give them the strength. As Paul said, "I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
We would make a mistake if we believed that vocations are only for priests and religious. Peter, James, and John were fisherman. Paul although extremely well educated was a tentmaker by trade. Today's readings are for all of us. We all have our vocation or calling in life.
Another mistake would be to think that we're not ready or prepared. Who would ever enter into one of life's great callings if they had the slightest idea of the trails and tribulations that they would encounter on life's journey? Peter and Paul did not go through a long period of training or study before they were called. That would come afterwards. When our Lord appeared to them they recognized that they were not ready but they couldn't resist Him.
Finally, another mistake would be to look inside of us for the call. Today's readings tell us that the call will usually come from outside. Our Lord appears to Peter at the side of the lake and to Paul on the road to Damascus. We should not expect to hear some kind of inner voice. In another place in the gospels our Lord tells us that when we did the least thing for one of our brothers, we did it for Him. In the same way when we hear someone asking us to do something or to undertake some task, we might consider that the Lord is speaking through them.
I'll never forget my dear aunt Nan. She had no children of her own but when my mother died when I was only 11 she stepped up and became a virtual mother to myself and my two younger brothers. Didn't the Lord speak to her through her widowed brother and three young nephews. Like Isaiah she responded, "Here I am."
If today you hear His Voice, harden not your hearts.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
C cycle
Reading 1. Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
Reading II. I Corinthians 12: 31--13:13
Gospel. Luke 4: 21-30 (the son of Joseph?)
Today's first reading is from the beginning of the book of the Prophet Jeremiah. It is Jeremiah's call to be a prophet:
But do you gird your loins;
stand up and tell them
all that I command you.
Jeremiah is going to be a prophet not in the sense that he is going to foretell the future but in the sense that he is going to remind the people of their past and their covenant with God, and bring them back into a true relationship with their God. How often have they forgotten that they are a chosen people, a people with a mission to bring all the nations to God. Jeremiah is warned that it will not be an easy task. His own people, Judah's kings and princes, priests and people, will fight against him.
.
This reading sets the scene for the continuation of Luke's gospel account of the return of Jesus to the synagogue in His home town of Nazareth which we began last week. The first verse of today's gospel reading actually repeats the ending of last week's reading. Remember, Jesus had read a passage from Isaiah about the Lord's anointed or chosen one and then said, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Today's reading gives us the peoples' reaction. In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, urged his followers to try to visualize the scenes of the gospel, even see them in their minds as if they were part of the scene itself. Let's put ourselves in this scene. We're in the church, we're impressed with the eloquent words of Jesus but then we remember that He is only one of us. "Isn't this the son of Joseph?" Maybe we're thinking, "Wait a minute, who does this guy think he is?"
Jesus hears and says, "no prophet is accepted in his own native place." More than that he tells us that in the past other prophets had been rejected by us, and could only do their healing among foreigners, even enemies. "There were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." Israel, Syria, the names are still with us today in the most strife torn region of the world. Naaman himself was a Syrian warlord.
OK, we're still in the scene and we can imagine our reaction. "When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury." We surge along with the crowd as we drive Him to the outskirts of the little hill town to throw Him over a cliff. However, He passes through our midst and goes away, leaving His home town of Nazareth behind.
St. Paul himself was no stranger to angry mobs. Before his conversion he had participated in the stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr. He was on the road to Damascus to persecute the Christians there when he encountered the risen Christ and received his own call to prophesy--to bring the gospel to all nations. In today's second reading we find that he is finding it no easier than Jeremiah.
He had established a Christian community in the leading Greek city of Corinth but after leaving them to continue on his missionary journeys, he has heard that the have begun to bicker among themselves. In the last two weeks we got a sense of what they were arguing about. Some felt that they were better than others--that they had received greater spiritual gifts. Christians of Jewish or Greek ancestry could not put away their traditional hostility to each other. So Paul has had to remind them that all our gifts or abilities come from Christ, that we all are part of His Mystical Body, and that we all have a role to play in the mission of Christ.
Even today there are many who don't like Paul especially when he tells women to be silent in Church or reminds them to be subservient to their husbands. We'll have to talk about those remarks some other day but for now it is enough to say that the same Paul wrote in today's reading the most beautiful and eloquent words that have ever been written on the subject of Love.
We're in the season of love, the time of the year when we celebrate St. Valentine's day. We know that our culture today has cheapened and debased the gift of love. We only have to watch TV to see that our culture is seeking after the lesser gifts. Paul tells us to "strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts." He boils them down to three:
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love."
What is love?
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Let's hope that we don't share the fate of the crowd at Nazareth when Love "passed through the midst of them and went away."
C cycle
Reading 1. Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
Reading II. I Corinthians 12: 31--13:13
Gospel. Luke 4: 21-30 (the son of Joseph?)
Today's first reading is from the beginning of the book of the Prophet Jeremiah. It is Jeremiah's call to be a prophet:
But do you gird your loins;
stand up and tell them
all that I command you.
Jeremiah is going to be a prophet not in the sense that he is going to foretell the future but in the sense that he is going to remind the people of their past and their covenant with God, and bring them back into a true relationship with their God. How often have they forgotten that they are a chosen people, a people with a mission to bring all the nations to God. Jeremiah is warned that it will not be an easy task. His own people, Judah's kings and princes, priests and people, will fight against him.
.
This reading sets the scene for the continuation of Luke's gospel account of the return of Jesus to the synagogue in His home town of Nazareth which we began last week. The first verse of today's gospel reading actually repeats the ending of last week's reading. Remember, Jesus had read a passage from Isaiah about the Lord's anointed or chosen one and then said, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Today's reading gives us the peoples' reaction. In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, urged his followers to try to visualize the scenes of the gospel, even see them in their minds as if they were part of the scene itself. Let's put ourselves in this scene. We're in the church, we're impressed with the eloquent words of Jesus but then we remember that He is only one of us. "Isn't this the son of Joseph?" Maybe we're thinking, "Wait a minute, who does this guy think he is?"
Jesus hears and says, "no prophet is accepted in his own native place." More than that he tells us that in the past other prophets had been rejected by us, and could only do their healing among foreigners, even enemies. "There were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." Israel, Syria, the names are still with us today in the most strife torn region of the world. Naaman himself was a Syrian warlord.
OK, we're still in the scene and we can imagine our reaction. "When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury." We surge along with the crowd as we drive Him to the outskirts of the little hill town to throw Him over a cliff. However, He passes through our midst and goes away, leaving His home town of Nazareth behind.
St. Paul himself was no stranger to angry mobs. Before his conversion he had participated in the stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr. He was on the road to Damascus to persecute the Christians there when he encountered the risen Christ and received his own call to prophesy--to bring the gospel to all nations. In today's second reading we find that he is finding it no easier than Jeremiah.
He had established a Christian community in the leading Greek city of Corinth but after leaving them to continue on his missionary journeys, he has heard that the have begun to bicker among themselves. In the last two weeks we got a sense of what they were arguing about. Some felt that they were better than others--that they had received greater spiritual gifts. Christians of Jewish or Greek ancestry could not put away their traditional hostility to each other. So Paul has had to remind them that all our gifts or abilities come from Christ, that we all are part of His Mystical Body, and that we all have a role to play in the mission of Christ.
Even today there are many who don't like Paul especially when he tells women to be silent in Church or reminds them to be subservient to their husbands. We'll have to talk about those remarks some other day but for now it is enough to say that the same Paul wrote in today's reading the most beautiful and eloquent words that have ever been written on the subject of Love.
We're in the season of love, the time of the year when we celebrate St. Valentine's day. We know that our culture today has cheapened and debased the gift of love. We only have to watch TV to see that our culture is seeking after the lesser gifts. Paul tells us to "strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts." He boils them down to three:
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love."
What is love?
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Let's hope that we don't share the fate of the crowd at Nazareth when Love "passed through the midst of them and went away."
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