UNACCEPTED PROPHETS - 4TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (1/30/2022)

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

January 30, 2022

Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
Psalm 71
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Luke 4:21-36

UNACCEPTED PROPHETS

It's not easy to preach or minister in your own home town among people who know your family well and remember when you were a little kid! (I have had that experience.) The gospel relates the rough reception Jesus received when he preached at the synagogue in Nazareth.


JEREMIAH

Our first reading today is the account of Jeremiah's call to be a prophet in 628 BC. The Lord's call and anointing preceded Jeremiah's birth: "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."

The Lord prepared Jeremiah for persecution and suffering. At various times in his prophetic ministry, Jeremiah would be: ignored, beaten, placed in stocks, sentenced to death, forced to watch his prophetic word burned up before him, thrown into a muddy cistern and denounced as a liar by the Jewish leaders.

The Lord, however, encourages Jeremiah and promises to defend him, strengthen him, and deliver him. The Responsorial, Psalm 71, relates well to Jeremiah's life and ministry, and to his unfailing trust in the Lord.

GOSPEL

By the time Jesus came back to Nazareth after his baptism, he already was acquiring a reputation. People were favorably impressed with him and he was receiving praise. That would soon change, however.

At Nazareth, Jesus challenges his listeners: "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place." Matthew and Mark have "a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown," the quote that is more commonly known.

Jesus proceeds to give examples of the Lord blessing Gentile foreigners - the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian. At this, the people in the synagogue were "all filled with fury." They were intending to throw Jesus off the brow of the cliff on which Nazareth is built, but Jesus escapes. (I have been blessed to visit Nazareth and can attest that the hill is extremely steep!) These verses are unique to St. Luke, the only Gentile among the four evangelists.

This episode brings to mind a verse from the Prologue of John's Gospel: "He came unto his own and his own received him not" (1:11).

1 CORINTHIANS

Our second reading is St. Paul's exquisite "hymn to love." This selection comes in the midst of his treatment of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (charisms) and his teaching on the Body of Christ. 

Paul's point is that no matter how many gifts we possess or charisms we exercise, if we don't have love, it's all pointless and useless.

The spiritual gifts will all pass away. Only faith, hope and love will last, "and the greatest of these is love."

OBEDIENCE, FORTITUDE AND LOVE

Today we have to marvel at the obedience and fortitude of Jeremiah, and all the prophets, for accepting the mission of speaking the word of the Lord even when difficult (and potentially harmful to one's health and well-being).

We are also reminded that whatever we do has to be done in love, to avoid being a "resounding gong or a clashing cymbal."

May the Lord Jesus grant us the grace of the same Holy Spirit who anointed him, that we might do the works that he did and still greater works than these, as he promised (cf. John 14:12).