January 30, 2022
My Dear Family of God,
This is the fourth Sunday in ordinary time Year C. In last Sunday's Gospel, Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and did announce to His hearers “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” In today's Gospel, we are told that the people of Nazareth were impressed by Jesus' words, and yet they seemed surprised. They thought of Jesus as merely Joseph's son. They did not expect such words from someone they believed to know too well. Familiarity it is said breeds contempt.
Jesus challenged and provoked the people of Nazareth by referring to examples in which Israel rejected the prophets. They were particularly offended that Jesus cites examples from the Old Testament in which great Israelite prophets chose to minister, heal, and bless Gentiles instead of Israelites: The Syrian general Naaman and the Sidonian woman of Zarephath.
He also challenged them to respond to His message in a way that was different from their ancestors. This call for a new response led to His rejection. Jesus’ hearers felt a sense of entitlement. After all, they were the sons of Abraham and God’s blessings were for them and not for Gentiles. They had forgotten of the fact that God chose Abraham so that through him, all the families of the earth, including Gentiles would be blessed.
Both Jesus in today’s Gospel reading and the prophet Jeremiah in the first reading face opposition and are persecuted for speaking God’s truth to their hearers: their own people. By virtue of our baptism, we share in the three-fold ministry of Christ as priests, prophets, and kings. We are a prophetic people called to courageously speak God’s truth in the face of opposition and persecution.
We cannot allow fear, intimidation, and the voices of evil to drown the Good News of salvation. But even as we face persecution for what we believe and what we stand for, we cannot give in to hatred, bitterness, and self-righteousness. As we speak out against injustice, let us not forget to pray for the conversion of those who perpetrate such evils that they too may come to know the saving power of God.
Finally, today’s first reading makes it abundantly clear to us, that even before we were born, God knew us and assigned to us our various vocations. “The word of the Lord came to me saying: 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.” I would like to make a passionate appeal to all of us to pray for the protection of the unborn, the respect for life and the dignity of the human person and that the Gospel of life may bring an end to the culture of death, abortion, hatred, racism, injustice, and strife.
Have a grace-filled week. Shalom!
Fr. James Ahenkora
