Tag: Nazareth

“May it be done to me according to your word.” | Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

From the responsorial psalm: ““In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, To do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 1:26-38, today’s readings)

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

In the moments after God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary, the salvation of all humanity hangs on Mary’s response. She asks how the Incarnation will take place, how God with us will come to be. Gabriel explains that “the power of the Most High will overshadow” and that his kingdom will have no end and that Elizabeth also will bear a child. Mary’s fiat echoes through the whole of salvation history. As Isaiah prophesied, Emmanuel takes the form of flesh, as Mary says yes to God’s will. No longer will the blood of bulls and goats be offered to take away sins but only the “offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all” through his obedience to the Father’s will. What takes place during the Annunciation is hard to grasp, but in pondering what it means, what it means for us today that Mary said yes, we offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

God, help me see Mary’s deep humility as she calls herself the handmaid of the Lord. I have a day ahead of me to offer an ear attentive to your will and a spirit to discern what you are asking me to do and how to do it. Give me the grace to recognize what you call me to—great or small—and strengthen my desire to hear you speak to me. “Here I am, Lord,” the psalmist sings, “I come to do your will.”

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.

“He passed through the midst of them and went away.” | Monday of the Third Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 13:1-9, today’s readings)

When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

The people in the synagogue filled with fury are from Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. He had just finished reading the scroll in the synagogue, proclaiming as the Messiah, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” At first incredulous and amazed, they say, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” But as Jesus tells them that no prophet is accepted in his own native place and that their stubbornness is like that of Naaman’s, God’s message will serve people other than Israelites. In the first reading, God healed Naaman, a gentile, of leprosy. Jesus teaches that unless one’s faith is like the faith of the servant girl in the first reading, receiving God’s mercy becomes all the more difficult as we try to grasp what God wants to freely give.

God, help me understand how it is that Jesus passed through the midst of his own townspeople who wanted to hurl him off the brow of a hill. Among the crowd were people who knew Jesus as a child, an adolescent, and as the son of Joseph and Mary. To be a bearer of your message, Lord, sometimes means facing incredulity among acquaintances, neighbors, friends, and even family members. The faith of the little girl in the first reading gives powerful witness to your mercy, when she says “if only” Naaman would present himself to Elisha the prophet to be cured. Jesus passes through the crowd because you have other places for him to go, to people whose soul is “athirst for the living God.”

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.

Tile Mosaic of Jesus, Mary and Joseph at Baptismal Fount and Altar

Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 14:1-12)

Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.”

Today’s Gospel begins Matthew’s fourteenth chapter, where he describes the puzzlement people felt over witnessing Jesus’ miracles. Like the people of Nazareth, Herod speculates what this might mean and from what source Jesus derives his power. Concluding that Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead, he is drawn back to the fear that led him into beheading John to save face in front of his guests at his birthday celebration. Herod’s actions foreshadow the treatment Jesus receives at his coming Passion and death, which he endured to destroy death and give us eternal life.

God, I am not as unlike Herod as I would like to believe. Herod responded out of fear, and so do I; he acted to save face and uphold his authority, and so have I. He was a sinner, and so am I. In the last words of today’s Gospel, there is comfort knowing that Jesus your Son received the abominable news of John’s beheading and took it all in. In his Passion and death, he took on our sins; by his resurrection, he restored life. Lord, help me not be so afraid of what is to come, which often doesn’t come to pass. Give me courage today to trust in your providence, to be a witness to you even in the face of opposition and persecution.

From the responsorial psalm: “The earth has yielded its fruits; God, our God, has blessed us. May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear him!” Lord of heaven and earth, be my strength!

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.

Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 13:54-58)

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

As Jesus comes to his hometown of Nazareth, people who know him are astonished at his words and hearing of his miracles. Matthew tells us that the people take offense at Jesus, the carpenter’s son whose mother is Mary and whose brothers they know by name. Because of their lack of faith, Jesus did not perform many miracles in his native place. Although their disbelief seems extraordinary, Jesus is taken for granted and his identity as the beloved Son of God is unrecognized in the same way that we might take for granted the so-called ordinary people who are closest to us. How does their practice of virtue, their imitation of Christ, lead us to grow in relationship with God?

God, help me see in the spiritual struggles of those closest to me that you are calling them to holiness. Help me recognize my role in supporting them and helping nurture their relationship with you. “The way of perfection,” the Catechism says, “passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.” Give me the grace to see you as you enter into relationship with each other in the seeming ordinariness of their lives. Give me strength to hold on to my cross.

Lord, help me in my disbelief and ongoing conversion. From the Gospel acclamation, “The word of the Lord remains forever; this is the word that has been proclaimed to you.” Saint John Vianney, pray for us!

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.

Monday of the Third Week of Lent

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.

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