Gospel Reflection For The 4th day of March in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
Luke 4:24-30
24 And he said: Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine throughout all the earth.
26 And to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta of Sidon, to a widow woman. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet: and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian. 28 And all they in the synagogue, hearing these things, were filled with anger. 29 And they rose up and thrust him out of the city; and they brought him to the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. 30 But he passing through the midst of them, went his way.
As we discussed before, Jesus was rejected by the people of His home town because they saw him as merely a man who had grown up among them. Not only did they not believe that He was the Messiah, the Son of God and capable of miracles, but they resented Him. “Who does he think he is?” they asked, and “Is this not the son of the carpenter?” They saw our Lord as a lowly, poor, uneducated man… and probably much worse. Many thought He was a con man, a fake. How could this Jesus, who was rumored to be illegitimate and from a poor family be the Savior? For about 30 years, He had just been a quiet and humble child who grew into a man before their very eyes. He was not said to have done anything extraordinary.
But then, Jesus was always Jesus. Perhaps there is more to the story. We know that He was honored by angles, shepherds and the Magi, and recognized as an infant in the Temple. We know that at about 12 years of age he amazed the religious teachers in the Temple. There were many legends about Jesus as a child, but none of them are known to be true. Perhaps his peers did know He was a special child…. Very likely, they at least sensed that He was special. Also, very likely, they resented Him. In our time, usually it is the good and smart kids who are picked on in school. I recall the line from an old Bob Dylan song, “Try to be pure of heart and they arrest you for robbery mistake your shyness for aloofness and your innocence for snobbery.” Although that line comes from one of Dylan’s secular songs, he wrote some very moving songs after his conversion to Christianity… no wonder he converted, given his insights into humanity.
Perhaps, our Lord was always an outsider. That would not be surprising. After all, how could God incarnate simply fit in with the other kids. We know that He was obedient to His parents, but we don’t know that He really had any friends before the Apostles. His cousin, John the Baptist, was certainly not one who could fit into any situation considered normal. The prophets said that the Messiah would be rejected and hated. Perhaps Jesus was always rejected.
On this subject, the Bible is silent. But most of us experience rejection in our lives. I recall the late Rush Limbaugh saying, “No one ever truly graduates high school.” By that, he meant that no matter our maturity and success, most of us remain awkward, unsure and afraid of rejection. Many of us have been rejected and hurt by family, as well as friends. Is it not amazing to consider that God would humble Himself so as to experience even the pains of our childhoods? Often, such experiences in childhood are among the most painful experiences of our lives and leave us scarred. Emotionally, such deep pain may be the closest we come to understanding what our Lord suffered for us, although it does not compare to the Crucifixion. We suffer unwillingly. If you ever wonder how much God loves you, consider what He did for you willingly…. Far beyond anything we can ever imagine, because He took on all the pain and suffering of all mankind. As another old song you may remember from childhood says, “Yes, Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so.”
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Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.