Word to the Wise
Monday, September 2, 2024 - Monday in the 22th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 2:1-5 and Luke 4:16-30]"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." Rolling up the scroll, [Jesus] handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." [Luke]
SEPTEMBER 2 LABOR DAY, USA
The daily gospel scripture from now until Advent will be coming from the Gospel According to Luke. And it begins, naturally enough, with Jesus' inaugural preaching in his own home town. One can only imagine the anticipation in the audience. After all, Jesus has been doing some remarkable things elsewhere before he returns to where he grew up and was well-known personally. The word had gotten around! They just weren't prepared for what he said, which has to be one of the shortest homilies in history!!! His claim to be the fulfillment of all the hopes of Israel, as prophesied by Isaiah, is too much for them to accept. The hometown boy, the village carpenter's son, is a great guy but not the Messiah! No way!! Their first good impression turns quickly to hostility. Jesus confronts them with their attitude: "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place...." and compares them to the unbelief in Israel in the time of Elijah and Elisha! Their reaction was to run him out of town!
A collective examination of conscience is not easy to bring about! The old saying about the role of the preacher being one of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable is all too true. This is particularly true in an election year when people are hearing all kinds of things from all kinds of candidates in conflict with Church teaching. To mention any of these conflicts is to invite accusations of "preaching politics from the pulpit" when the real problem is allowing politics to shape faith instead of the other way around. Folks can get quite "comfortable" in their political opinions and be unaware of conflicts in their opinions with Jesus' and the Church's teaching!!
Today, on Labor Day, there will be a lot of political speeches by candidates for all kinds of positions. Measuring their speech with the gospel can be a moment not only of confrontation with the speaker, but also with one's own beliefs and prejudices. If this is uncomfortable, then we know why the folks in Nazareth got so upset with Jesus!!! AMEN