A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is in his hometown talking to people in the synagogue who must have been made up of family, neighbors, and friends. They would have known Jesus well as the carpenter’s son, the son of Joseph and Mary. How could they be expected to accept Jesus as the Messiah? That is exactly who he claimed to be. In the same chapter as today’s reading, Luke tells us that Jesus unrolled the scroll in the synagogue to these words: “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.” He then said, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” Among my family and neighbors and friends, how do I proclaim this good news, and is it accepted?
God, compared to the grandness of the Gospel, things that happen close to home seem mundane and no miracles ever seem to take place. Yet in the first reading, at Elisha’s bidding, Naaman washed in the Jordan seven times and his leprosy left him. His skin again became like the skin of a little child. Give me the grace today to see you amid the ordinary, among the mundane events of the day. Having been baptized and partaking of the sacraments, I can say as Jesus did: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” I can choose to be an instrument of his healing—to bring hope to the poor, to free others, and to bring light to the darkness. How is it that through the risen Christ I become Christ to others in my own native place? And how can I open my eyes to others—those closest to me—who have been Christ bringing glad tidings? Help me take all of this in.
Lord, be with me today in my own native place. Send forth your Spirit, O Lord!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.