4th Sunday in Ordinary
Time
29-30 January
2022, St. Lambert Parish
Jer
1:4-5, 17-19
1
Cor 12:31—13:13 or 13:4-13
Lk
4:21-30
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Before I start, it might be good to point out a general, structural
principle for the Lectionary in Ordinary Time (the selection of Scripture
Readings that we use outside of the great feasts and times like Advent, Lent,
Christmas and Easter). 2022 is the third year of the Sunday Cycle and so we are
usually going to read from the Gospel of St. Luke. The Second Readings on
Sundays are thematically unrelated. They are continuous readings mostly from
St. Paul’s Letters and these days from his First Letter to the Corinthians. The
First Readings from the Old Testament, this week from the prophet Jeremiah,
seek to underpin or illustrate the Gospel which sets the tone or the theme for
the particular Sunday.
On the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, St.
Luke recounts “part two” of the scene in the synagogue at Nazareth, that is,
the reaction of the people to Jesus proclaiming that He is the fulfillment of
Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah. Different from last Sunday’s reaction of
the people assembled for the reading from the book of the law in the Book of
Nehemiah, the people in today’s Gospel reject Jesus the Word of God and attempt
to throw Him off a cliff. From the mouth of Christ, we hear that He wasn’t the
least bit surprised by them, He fully expected their negative reaction stating,
“Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his
own native place.”
To my way of thinking, we need to take the Gospel account and
these words, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native
place,” as a challenge to ourselves regarding the Word of God. Time and again
today you will hear preachers, but also serious Catholics in the social media,
insisting or accusing that we have unthroned Christ the King in our day. People
and even priests and bishops may no longer believe or certainly they do not
behave as if the Catholic Church were any more than one of a possible number of
religious confessions. They seem to be cool with the expression that freedom of
religion has to do with being able to attend the church of your choice on
Sunday. This happens at the expense of the teaching of the Second Vatican
Council that the Church established by Jesus Christ subsists in the Catholic
Church. The Council taught that there is one Church of Christ, and it is the
Catholic one. We refer to all the various Protestant denominations as just that
denominations, but not Church in the fullest sense of the term.
When we do not hold to solid and constant Catholic teaching
and especially as we lump all the various non-Christian religions (Judaism,
Islam, Buddhism, and so forth) into this same pot of denominational expressions,
then all of a sudden Christ is diminished. In America, where from the beginning
we Catholics have always been a minority, albeit a very important one, that has
generally and rightly translated into respect for one another. But as soon as
we move out of the Christian sphere, which is our American heritage, then all
of a sudden Jesus is no longer the Christ, God’s Anointed, our only Savior. In
this sense we can say that Christ has been deprived of His Throne and Crown.
“Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying: ‘Today
this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.’”
This no sooner being said and the people in the synagogue start
denying the possibility of Christ’s words being truly prophetic, of their truly
being the last word, so to speak, and the rule of their lives, as having come
from the mouth of God.
For the parish mission I preached over the weekend of the 2nd
Sunday of Advent, the priests of St. Michael Parish gave me the assignment not
only to prepare the faithful for Christmas but also to address the scandal of
the lack of faith in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist affecting the
Church generally today. There are a number of reasons for this crisis of faith
in the Eucharist, but one I did not spend much time on at St. Michael’s, but
which strikes me looking at the readings for today, is that of the nature of
prophecy, both Old and New Testament, which is meant to be confrontational. In
today’s First Reading, God speaks to the young prophet Jeremiah and tells him
to ready himself for strife and rejection by God’s People unwilling to hear his
words.
“But do you gird your loins; stand up and tell them all
that I command you. Be not crushed on their account, as though I would leave
you crushed before them; for it is I this day who have made you a fortified
city… against the whole land… They will fight against you but not prevail over
you; for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”
Jesus walked away from that crowd from the synagogue on the
brow of the hill outside Nazareth that had rejected Him and wanted to make an
end of Him and silence Him, by pushing him over the cliff to His death.
Eventually, in Christ’s own good time, after He had completed His prophetic
mission, they through Satan’s pride thought to have put an end to Him and to
have silenced Him, by mistreating Him and finally nailing Him to a Cross. His
death, however, swallowed up sin and death, winning victory in His glorious
Resurrection. Christ our King is risen!
We have been brought up and rightly so not to insult, despise
or lord it over our non-Catholic relatives, friends, and neighbors. Within the
community of the Church, however, we are confronted by the Word of God for Who He
is. The obedience of faith would have us give the Lord Jesus His due, His
Kingship over every aspect of our lives. Don’t be deceived by those who claim
to be Catholic and refuse to bow under the mighty Hand of God and His truth! This
last week was the great march for life in Washington and elsewhere. There are
no exceptions concerning the absolute respect we own to all human life from
conception to frail old age. And there should be no surprise that we are rejected
for choosing God’s part. We cannot take life given by God in the womb and
preserved by His Will in both disability and severe illness. O Lord, Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven!
Things should go as they did in open space before the Water Gate
of the Temple in Jerusalem, as the people rejoiced in rediscovering God’s law
and adhering to it. More often than not, though (“Amen, I say to you, no
prophet is accepted in his own native place.”) familiarity breeds contempt
and people deny the prophet his due.
Pray for conversion to the fulness of faith in Christ, for
yourselves, for your families and friends, for the Church of God! O Lord, Thy
Kingdom come, Thy Will be done!
Praised be Jesus Christ!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
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