Our Ministries
28 Jan

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Family Reunion Gone Wrong

First they question how someone from their hometown could be so great. And then, when Jesus refuses to perform miracles at their beck and call, when he speaks out in the synagogue about care of lepers and widows, the hometown crowd chases him to the edge of a hillside and attempts to throw him over. Jesus passed through the crowd and went away. It was a family reunion gone wrong! It is not the homecoming one would expect.

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus observes that “no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” Many also remember the adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Sometimes, the familiar does us no favors. Sometimes it is hard to hear the realities of “hurt” coming from people we think we know. Sometimes they are hard words to hear. Can we recognize God’s presence and work in our lives more clearly when we go to places that are unfamiliar?

As we prepare for our individual and parish participation in the diocesan synod process, we are invited to be curious about the experience of others, those who are not so familiar to us. Who are the “lepers” and “widows” among us, in our hometowns, in our parish? Who are the ones untouched or untouchable in parish life? Who are those without connections or relationships, perhaps new to SFA? How are we experiencing our need to recognize the stranger in our midst? Are there persons in our parish who feel unwelcome at home? Rejected? Are there people in our midst, persons we thought we knew, who are passing through the crowd and simply going away?

St. Paul reminds us that it is necessary to go beyond the superficial, to become more mature than we have been. We need to “grow up” and to grow into deeper relationship, deeper faithfulness. This means seeing with more than our eyes and going beyond the appearance of things and people to the heart of the matter—deeper love and relationship. The listening in our synod process will provide opportunities to dive deeper—to see more clearly, to understand others, to work for change in relationships.

What makes the message of Jesus hard for us to hear and accept? What does knowing and following Jesus call us to do? To what gift of prophecy, what “speaking for” are we being called? Our challenge is to be open to the very God in whom we profess to believe, the God who works in anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, custom, or convention. Will we simply pass through and go away?

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