From Fr. Jude Botelho:
This passage narrates an extremely important event: the reconstituting of the people of Israel after their return from exile. It was a new beginning for Israel. The law-centred religion, Judaism, began with that solemn convocation recounted in today’s reading. The Law was read and explained to them. Ezra, the priest, who reads from the Book of the Law, is entrusted with ‘giving the sense’ in order that the people understand and obey God’s word contained in the Law. The people raise their hands and cry out, “Amen! Amen!” indicating their acceptance of the Law. This scene resembles the first part of our Eucharist, called the liturgy of the word where scripture is read and explained to elicit our response to God.
Observing the spirit or letter of the Law?
Under the blue laws of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Puritans administered religion to unwilling subjects by means of the whipping post, the ducking stool, the stocks, the fines, and prison. Mrs. Alice Morse Earle’s history, The Sabbath in Puritan New England has such examples: ‘Two lovers, John Lewis and Sarah Chapman, were accused and tried for sitting together on the Lord’s Day under an apple tree. A Dunstable soldier, for wetting a piece of old hat to put on his shoe to protect his foot, was fined forty shillings for doing this heavy work. Captain Kemble of Boston in 1656 was put in public stocks for two hours for his ‘lewd and unseemingly behaviour’ which consisted of kissing his wife in public on the Sabbath on the doorstep of his house after his return from a three-year voyage. A man who had fallen into the water who absented himself from church to dry his only suit of clothes was found guilty and publicly whipped.’ -Was the law made for man or man for the law?
Anthony Castle in ‘More Quotes and Anecdotes’
In today’s gospel we see Jesus who has a message to preach and a way of life to live, returning to Nazareth and entering the synagogue as he usually did. The onlookers were concerned that being at home and being in the synagogue there would be none of the normal excitement and stir that usually followed him wherever he went. What happened probably went over the heads of most people who were not familiar with the words of the prophets. Isaiah had stated very clearly to them the signs which would show when the Messiah had come. Jesus read that passage and announced “Today this passage is being fulfilled in your hearing.” Very bluntly and openly he was declaring that the Messianic times had begun, that he had arrived, he had come to replace the old law with the new law of love. This was the beginning of the end for Jesus and that end would just be the beginning! Even today, as we read and proclaim the Gospel, His words are being fulfilled. The words of Jesus are anointed by the Spirit and when these words enter the heart, the Spirit enters with them. If we are anointed by the Spirit we will listen with openness to what the Lord wants to say to us today. God will not disappoint us, His word is always fulfilled when we believe and listen with faith. If we don’t expect to hear something that will profoundly affect our lives, we will not hear it. In the beginning of the Gospel we read that everyone who heard him was pleased with his teaching but later, when they found his words hard-hitting and confronting, their attitude changed and they closed their ears and rejected his teaching. The words of Isaiah, quoted by Jesus today are central to his mission. We know who Jesus is by the way he revealed his identity by his actions. We know whether we are disciples of Jesus by the way we let his words influence our lives.
Today the Good News is being fulfilled!
If someone from Mars arrived here today, and asked ‘Are you Christians or will I have to look elsewhere?’ Could we quote the words of today’s gospel and ask him to look around, and see for himself? The Old Testament is like radio, the New Testament is like television, and the life of Christians should be live drama. The value of Christianity lies in its witnesses. You write a new page of the gospel each day, by the things that you do, and the words that you say. People read what you write, whether faithful or true. What is the gospel according to you? Jesus came to do and to teach. In other words, he did the thing himself first, and then he taught his disciples to follow his example. A good example of this was when he washed their feet at the Last Supper. You and I are asked to live the gospel. You may be the only gospel someone will ever read; they may never buy the book.
Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the gospel truth’
Inaugural Address
When U. S. Presidents are sworn into office it is customary for them to deliver inaugural speeches. These addresses usually outline the challenges which face them and the ideals by which they will try to govern. Such inaugural speeches are more often remembered, however, for their inspirational sayings. We recall, for example, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words in 1933: “This great nation will endure as it has endured. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” John F. Kennedy’s exhortation in 1961 is equally memorable: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” More recently, we call to mind Ronald Reagan’s American Song theme in 1985: “hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic – daring, decent and fair. That’s our heritage, that’s our song… we raise our voices to the God who is the author of this most tender music.” -Today’s gospel reads somewhat like one of these presidential inaugural addresses. Jesus had already been appointed officially by his Father to his office as Messiah when he was baptized. He now begins his teaching ministry by standing up in public in a synagogue and making his inaugural address. In his speech he quotes the prophet Isaiah to outline the challenges facing him: ‘He will bring glad tidings to the poor and proclaim liberty to captives; he will restore sight to the blind and free the imprisoned.’ Then he makes the dramatic and daring declaration that all this is happening right then and right there: “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.”
Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’
Life is an echo
A man pulled up at a filling station one day to get some petrol. He asked the young lad attending the pumps ‘What are the people in this next village like?’ To his surprise, the young lad asked him what the people in the last village in which he had stopped were like. The man replied ‘Oh, they were very nice, friendly, and most helpful.’ ‘Well, then,’ replied the lad ‘you’ll find that the people in the next village will be the same.’ The next man who stopped at the filling station asked the very same question. Once again, the young lad asked him how he found the people were in the last village in which he had stopped. ‘Oh, they were sour and unfriendly’ came the reply. ‘In that case, you’ll find the people in the next village will be just the same.’ -Even if Jesus speaks, nothing happens unless the listeners are prepared to listen…..
Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the Gospel Truth!’
The Courage to Change
In November of 1984 on one of his PBS Late Night America Shows, Dennis Wholey confessed that he was an alcoholic. He went on to describe a book he had put together entitled The Courage to Change: Personal Conversations about Alcoholism with Dennis Wholey. The book contains frank and revealing conversations with a wide variety of celebrity alcoholics such as rock singer Grace Slick, baseball player Bob Welch, actor Jason Roberts, comedian Shecky Greene and catholic priest Vaughan Quinn. Also, there are heartfelt conversations with Rod Steiger and Jerry Falwell, who are children of alcoholics; and Sybil Carter, whose husband Billy is an alcoholic. Four years earlier, Dennis Wholey confronted his own problem with alcohol and now is on a mission with his book to help other victims of what is sometimes called “the most treatable untreated disease in this country.” Dennis Wholey’s message about The Courage to Change matches our Lord’s message in Mark’s gospel: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the good news.”
Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’
Homeland
Edgar Reitz, the German film director, tells the story of how he went home with a friend to visit his mother and while they were there his mother told a story he had never heard before. The story was of a man from their town who had left his house one day saying he was going up the road to the local inn for a drink. But he never returned home, and no one ever heard of him again. Reitz was intrigued by the story because he was interested in what would make someone leave home without telling anyone, and what would keep him from ever coming back. He was interested in what makes people leave the place they belong to, and what makes some of them come back. Why do some people leave home never to return? Reitz decided to make a film on the theme. He has called it Heimat, which means “homeland”, and it lasts for 15 hours and 36 minutes! The film is a chronicle of one family and one small village in Germany from 1919 until 1982. One of its many appeals is how it depicts the great sense of belonging the people have in the small village of Schabbach when they are born into a place their family have lived for generations. They are born into a particular memory, they are able to call on all this, which gives them a sense of belonging, and a hold over their identity. No matter how far people travel from home perhaps there is always some hope that they can go back. In today’s Gospel Jesus returns to Nazareth where he has been brought up, the place which gives him the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.
Dennis McBride in ‘Seasons of the Word’
Actions speak louder than words!
I once read about an elderly lady in London who had just crossed the street, when a man walked up to her and said politely, “Excuse me ma’am, but I must thank you.” Taken aback, the lady said, “Thank me! For what, may I ask?” “Ma’am” he explained, “I used to be a bus conductor and you were often on my bus. Every time I issued you a ticket, you’d greet me with a cheerful smile and a friendly ‘Good morning.” I knew at once that it came from something within. Seeing a little Bible in your hands one morning, I said to myself, “That’s where it comes from!” So I bought myself a Bible, and I found Jesus –thanks to you ma’am.” With that he doffed his hat and walked away. The dear old lady was astonished and deeply touched - May His word speak through our deeds!
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1. The story is told of a Franciscan monk in Australia assigned to be the guide and "gofer" to Mother Teresa when she visited New South Wales. Thrilled and excited at the prospect of being so close to this great woman, he dreamed of how much he would learn from her and what they would talk about. But during her visit, he became frustrated. Although he was constantly near her, the friar never had the opportunity to say one word to Mother Teresa. There were always other people for her to meet.
Finally, her tour was over, and she was due to fly to New Guinea. In desperation, the Franciscan friar spoke to Mother Teresa: If I pay my own fare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk to you and learn from you? Mother Teresa looked at him. "You have enough money to pay airfare to New Guinea?" she asked.
2. "Antiques" and "collectibles" have value because they have survived intact for a long period of time. With the exception of those few things that are made of gold or silver or precious gemstones, the value in most "old stuff" is mostly found in the simple fact that they are still around. Except for the ravages of the plagues like the Black Death pandemic, which killed between 75 million and 200 million people, the biggest and most frequent destructive force in civilization has always been fire.
Paris burned.
London burned.
Washington D.C. burned.
Chicago burned.
San Francisco burned.
For "stuff" to survive these infernos was no small feat. And it makes them valuable.
Then there is the human factor.
One night a tiger trainer was performing at a circus. He went into the cage with the tigers and a huge hush came over the crowd as the doors were locked behind him. Skillfully, the trainer put the tigers though their routine, entertaining the crowd. But, suddenly there was a "pop" and the all the lights went out under the big top.
The trainer was locked inside the cage with the tigers in complete darkness. They could see him with their night vision, but he could not see them. All he had was a chair and a whip for protection. Finally the lights came back on and the trainer finished his performance.
Later in a TV interview, the trainer admitted how scared he was. Then he realized that the tigers did not know that he could not see them. "I just cracked my whip and talked to them," he said, "until the lights came on." (from "Tigers in the Dark," God's Little Lessons on Life for Dad, Honor Books)
Keith Wagner, Liberated and Free
5. Hope
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." - Abraham Lincoln, 1865.
"This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933.
"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." - John F Kennedy, 1960.
Today's Scripture is Luke's version of the opening moments of Jesus' public ministry. We might call this his inaugural sermon.
Mickey Anders, Jesus' Mission and Ours
14. The Shoemaker:
A shoemaker, says Edwin Markham, through a dream was told that he would see Jesus the next day. He waited in his store all day. The only one who came in the morning was a senior citizen. His shoes were worn out. The shoemaker gave him a fresh pair at no charge. In the afternoon came an old woman. She was hungry. The shoemaker promptly gave her his own lunch. As evening approached, a child came in crying bitterly. She was lost. The shoemaker took her home to the other end of town. Returning, he was certain that he had missed his rendezvous with the Christ.
Then he heard a voice. "...I kept my word. Three times today I came to your door. Three times my shadow was on your floor. I was the beggar with bruised feet. I was the woman you gave food to eat. I was the lost child you took home."
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15. The Pregnant Young Girl:
One day I had a particularly beautiful experience that demonstrated the joy that following God's way brings. I was scurrying about the front office when I noticed a teenage girl standing behind some people getting Mass cards. She looked pretty shy. She also looked pretty pregnant. I said to her, "Can I help you, honey?" (OK, so I'm not politically correct.) She told me that she was wondering if this is the Church where she could get some food. I walked her outside and asked her if she was pregnant. She said, "Six months," with a big smile and then told me, That's why I need food, I'm eating everything in sight." I brought her over to the Community Life Ministry where our wonderful volunteers took good care of her with the food you folks bring in. I also brought her to our Pregnancy Center. I asked her if she had everything she needed for the baby. She said she had nothing. So I told her that the people of St. Ignatius have help for her and her baby. She got in touch with one of our counselors and was able to get all sorts of baby furniture, and clothes, and infant toys and general stuff. Before she left she said to me, "You know, I could have had an abortion like some of my girl friends. But I know it is not right. I know there is a baby in me, and I just couldn't live with myself." I'm relating all this to you because I want to emphasize this point: It is not guilt that kept her from having an abortion; it was the joy that she would be doing the right thing by having the baby.
Everybody sees Jesus from a different angle, including the writers of the New Testament. For Matthew, Jesus is the Teacher of Righteousness. For Mark, Jesus is an exorcist, constantly battling the powers of evil. Even after Evil nails him to a cross, Jesus emerges from the tomb to continue his saving work. But for Luke, the word that best summarizes the person and work of Jesus is the word “prophet.” In the story we heard today, Jesus is a different kind of prophet. The prophet Jesus says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” When the prophet Jesus says, “Today the Scripture is fulfilled,” he turns memory into mission. He transforms a hope into an assignment. He claims the beautiful poetry of Isaiah as his job description.
This passage narrates an extremely important event: the reconstituting of the people of Israel after their return from exile. It was a new beginning for Israel. The law-centred religion, Judaism, began with that solemn convocation recounted in today’s reading. The Law was read and explained to them. Ezra, the priest, who reads from the Book of the Law, is entrusted with ‘giving the sense’ in order that the people understand and obey God’s word contained in the Law. The people raise their hands and cry out, “Amen! Amen!” indicating their acceptance of the Law. This scene resembles the first part of our Eucharist, called the liturgy of the word where scripture is read and explained to elicit our response to God.
Observing the spirit or letter of the Law?
Under the blue laws of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Puritans administered religion to unwilling subjects by means of the whipping post, the ducking stool, the stocks, the fines, and prison. Mrs. Alice Morse Earle’s history, The Sabbath in Puritan New England has such examples: ‘Two lovers, John Lewis and Sarah Chapman, were accused and tried for sitting together on the Lord’s Day under an apple tree. A Dunstable soldier, for wetting a piece of old hat to put on his shoe to protect his foot, was fined forty shillings for doing this heavy work. Captain Kemble of Boston in 1656 was put in public stocks for two hours for his ‘lewd and unseemingly behaviour’ which consisted of kissing his wife in public on the Sabbath on the doorstep of his house after his return from a three-year voyage. A man who had fallen into the water who absented himself from church to dry his only suit of clothes was found guilty and publicly whipped.’ -Was the law made for man or man for the law?
Anthony Castle in ‘More Quotes and Anecdotes’
In today’s gospel we see Jesus who has a message to preach and a way of life to live, returning to Nazareth and entering the synagogue as he usually did. The onlookers were concerned that being at home and being in the synagogue there would be none of the normal excitement and stir that usually followed him wherever he went. What happened probably went over the heads of most people who were not familiar with the words of the prophets. Isaiah had stated very clearly to them the signs which would show when the Messiah had come. Jesus read that passage and announced “Today this passage is being fulfilled in your hearing.” Very bluntly and openly he was declaring that the Messianic times had begun, that he had arrived, he had come to replace the old law with the new law of love. This was the beginning of the end for Jesus and that end would just be the beginning! Even today, as we read and proclaim the Gospel, His words are being fulfilled. The words of Jesus are anointed by the Spirit and when these words enter the heart, the Spirit enters with them. If we are anointed by the Spirit we will listen with openness to what the Lord wants to say to us today. God will not disappoint us, His word is always fulfilled when we believe and listen with faith. If we don’t expect to hear something that will profoundly affect our lives, we will not hear it. In the beginning of the Gospel we read that everyone who heard him was pleased with his teaching but later, when they found his words hard-hitting and confronting, their attitude changed and they closed their ears and rejected his teaching. The words of Isaiah, quoted by Jesus today are central to his mission. We know who Jesus is by the way he revealed his identity by his actions. We know whether we are disciples of Jesus by the way we let his words influence our lives.
Today the Good News is being fulfilled!
If someone from Mars arrived here today, and asked ‘Are you Christians or will I have to look elsewhere?’ Could we quote the words of today’s gospel and ask him to look around, and see for himself? The Old Testament is like radio, the New Testament is like television, and the life of Christians should be live drama. The value of Christianity lies in its witnesses. You write a new page of the gospel each day, by the things that you do, and the words that you say. People read what you write, whether faithful or true. What is the gospel according to you? Jesus came to do and to teach. In other words, he did the thing himself first, and then he taught his disciples to follow his example. A good example of this was when he washed their feet at the Last Supper. You and I are asked to live the gospel. You may be the only gospel someone will ever read; they may never buy the book.
Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the gospel truth’
Inaugural Address
When U. S. Presidents are sworn into office it is customary for them to deliver inaugural speeches. These addresses usually outline the challenges which face them and the ideals by which they will try to govern. Such inaugural speeches are more often remembered, however, for their inspirational sayings. We recall, for example, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words in 1933: “This great nation will endure as it has endured. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” John F. Kennedy’s exhortation in 1961 is equally memorable: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” More recently, we call to mind Ronald Reagan’s American Song theme in 1985: “hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic – daring, decent and fair. That’s our heritage, that’s our song… we raise our voices to the God who is the author of this most tender music.” -Today’s gospel reads somewhat like one of these presidential inaugural addresses. Jesus had already been appointed officially by his Father to his office as Messiah when he was baptized. He now begins his teaching ministry by standing up in public in a synagogue and making his inaugural address. In his speech he quotes the prophet Isaiah to outline the challenges facing him: ‘He will bring glad tidings to the poor and proclaim liberty to captives; he will restore sight to the blind and free the imprisoned.’ Then he makes the dramatic and daring declaration that all this is happening right then and right there: “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.”
Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’
Life is an echo
A man pulled up at a filling station one day to get some petrol. He asked the young lad attending the pumps ‘What are the people in this next village like?’ To his surprise, the young lad asked him what the people in the last village in which he had stopped were like. The man replied ‘Oh, they were very nice, friendly, and most helpful.’ ‘Well, then,’ replied the lad ‘you’ll find that the people in the next village will be the same.’ The next man who stopped at the filling station asked the very same question. Once again, the young lad asked him how he found the people were in the last village in which he had stopped. ‘Oh, they were sour and unfriendly’ came the reply. ‘In that case, you’ll find the people in the next village will be just the same.’ -Even if Jesus speaks, nothing happens unless the listeners are prepared to listen…..
Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the Gospel Truth!’
The Courage to Change
In November of 1984 on one of his PBS Late Night America Shows, Dennis Wholey confessed that he was an alcoholic. He went on to describe a book he had put together entitled The Courage to Change: Personal Conversations about Alcoholism with Dennis Wholey. The book contains frank and revealing conversations with a wide variety of celebrity alcoholics such as rock singer Grace Slick, baseball player Bob Welch, actor Jason Roberts, comedian Shecky Greene and catholic priest Vaughan Quinn. Also, there are heartfelt conversations with Rod Steiger and Jerry Falwell, who are children of alcoholics; and Sybil Carter, whose husband Billy is an alcoholic. Four years earlier, Dennis Wholey confronted his own problem with alcohol and now is on a mission with his book to help other victims of what is sometimes called “the most treatable untreated disease in this country.” Dennis Wholey’s message about The Courage to Change matches our Lord’s message in Mark’s gospel: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the good news.”
Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’
Homeland
Edgar Reitz, the German film director, tells the story of how he went home with a friend to visit his mother and while they were there his mother told a story he had never heard before. The story was of a man from their town who had left his house one day saying he was going up the road to the local inn for a drink. But he never returned home, and no one ever heard of him again. Reitz was intrigued by the story because he was interested in what would make someone leave home without telling anyone, and what would keep him from ever coming back. He was interested in what makes people leave the place they belong to, and what makes some of them come back. Why do some people leave home never to return? Reitz decided to make a film on the theme. He has called it Heimat, which means “homeland”, and it lasts for 15 hours and 36 minutes! The film is a chronicle of one family and one small village in Germany from 1919 until 1982. One of its many appeals is how it depicts the great sense of belonging the people have in the small village of Schabbach when they are born into a place their family have lived for generations. They are born into a particular memory, they are able to call on all this, which gives them a sense of belonging, and a hold over their identity. No matter how far people travel from home perhaps there is always some hope that they can go back. In today’s Gospel Jesus returns to Nazareth where he has been brought up, the place which gives him the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.
Dennis McBride in ‘Seasons of the Word’
Actions speak louder than words!
I once read about an elderly lady in London who had just crossed the street, when a man walked up to her and said politely, “Excuse me ma’am, but I must thank you.” Taken aback, the lady said, “Thank me! For what, may I ask?” “Ma’am” he explained, “I used to be a bus conductor and you were often on my bus. Every time I issued you a ticket, you’d greet me with a cheerful smile and a friendly ‘Good morning.” I knew at once that it came from something within. Seeing a little Bible in your hands one morning, I said to myself, “That’s where it comes from!” So I bought myself a Bible, and I found Jesus –thanks to you ma’am.” With that he doffed his hat and walked away. The dear old lady was astonished and deeply touched - May His word speak through our deeds!
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From Sermons.com
Do you remember the old western movies when the sheriff is holding a prisoner in jail and a mob wants to lynch him? The mob comes to the jail and the sheriff meets them out front. The sheriff picks out who he thinks is the ringleader and says, "John, you and this crowd are playing with fire. You're angry and you're letting your anger tempt you to take the law into your own hands. Now, you better calm down right now and go on home. That man inside is my prisoner, and will be tried in a proper way. Before you can touch him, you're going to have to come over me." You remember how the scene ends. The mob grumbles a lot but gradually goes away, the wisest and oldest departing first. What stopped them? The moral authority of a brave man. Jesus' moral authority was his only means of escape.
I want to let you in on an industry secret. Ready? Most preachers have a difficult time preaching in the congregations where they grew up. It is true for me. I was recently invited to preach in the church where I grew up. My mixed feelings about the invitation were justified. Before anybody heard a word I said, they remembered little Billy Carter, who made paper airplanes out of worship bulletins and dropped them from the balcony when nobody was looking. Even the newcomers who joined long after I moved away had been indoctrinated. They knew members of my family, and that became the filter through which they heard the content of my sermon. Before that congregation heard me, they already knew me....
Based on verse 22, it appears there was immediately a double-reaction: some were amazed and part of their amazement at his "gracious" speech gets expressed in the line "Isn't this Joseph's son?" But that question seems to cut two ways, and Jesus' subsequent words indicate his awareness of this. The question "Isn't this Joseph's son" CAN be a source of genuine wonder and appreciation-look how far our local boy has come! But it's not difficult to see that the same question could be asked with a real edge to it, with a sneer, with derision. "Joseph's kid? Good grief. He was a nobody back in the day and he's a nobody from a no-account family now. Forget him!"
In the church, most of us think of Epiphany simply as a season on the church calendar, and sometimes as a season we don't understand too well. We may recall that we are celebrating particularly the revealing of Christ to the Gentile world, via the Wise Men, but not much more. The dictionary, however, adds further dimension to the word, listen: "a sudden, intuitive perception ... into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." That definition applies in a profound and unique way to our Lord Jesus Christ. We have good reason to write his Epiphany with a capital "E" because it is not only a special day on the calendar, but a revealing which sets the pattern for all other revealings.
True to the literary definition of the term, Jesus brought perception "into the reality or essential meaning." He stripped the superficial away from life and the artificial from religion. What we need, he told Nicodemus is a new birth: not just a reformation or higher resolves, but an utterly new start. To the woman of Samaria he prescribed water which would satisfy the deep, eternal thirst. For the rich young ruler, he commanded a whole new set of values, a change which the man, unfortunately, was unwilling to make.
But in every case, Jesus went below the surface -- down to reality...
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It is customary for politicians to launch political campaigns in their hometowns. Hometown is supposedly where your most fervent supporters are. Jesus launched his public ministry in his hometown of Nazareth, a town of about 20,000. It was there he had grown up, played with friends, worshipped in the synagogue, and assisted his father around the carpenter shop. We think that father Joseph died when Jesus was perhaps in his late teens. Thereafter, Jesus as eldest son took over the carpenter shop and earned a living for his family. He was a member of the Nazareth Chamber of Commerce, so to speak. So, it was natural that at the age of 30 Jesus would officially launch his ministry as God's representative right in his hometown. Jesus was invited to be the guest speaker in the local synagogue.
At first things went well. Everybody whispered about how smoothly and graciously he spoke. But then the bubble burst. He had not consulted any political experts about what to say, and his political correctness was at least a quart low. He told them the hard, unvarnished truth, and then the homecoming turned into a disaster. So enraged were the people over what he said that they wanted to kill him. Verses 28 through 30 tell us that they forced him out of the synagogue to the edge of a cliff on the southeastern side of Nazareth. They were about ready to toss him over the cliff. But then mysteriously he turned and walked through them and left Nazareth for good. How did Jesus do that? How did he escape? I think I know. It was his moral authority.
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Tell the Cats to Turn Around
We despise people who challenge our cherished myths and kick us out of our comfort zones. The truth is that when Jesus sets about the task of saving us, he has to heal us of any myth or prejudice that is contrary to the spirit of Christ. Billy Sunday was the Billy Graham of a previous generation. He was conducting a crusade in a particular city. In one of his sermons he said something critical of the labor conditions for workers in that area. After the service, several prominent businessmen sent a message to him by one of the local pastors. The message was this---Billy, leave labor matters alone. Concentrate on getting people saved. Stay away from political issues. You're rubbing the fur the wrong way." Billy Sunday sent this message back to them: "If I'm rubbing the fur the wrong way, tell the cats to turn around."
Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, Sermons.com
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Moving the Margins
Jesus lived on the margins and moved the margins to include all people, and hence invited hostile crowds to want to edge him out of existence. Today the church wants to edge Jesus out of our worship anytime the margins are made too wide and include too many who are not like us. Recently I was sitting at my computer, contemplating the way Jesus offended so many people so quickly in his ministry. I asked, "Why?" The answer was at the top of my screen. My word processing instructions at the top read: "Drag the margin boundaries on the rulers." That is why he upset people so much: in his life he dragged the margin boundaries of race, creed, and color to include all people. He dragged the margin boundaries when he gave a common meal, which we have made a holy meal symbolic of his inclusive love for all people. Jesus is dragged to the edge of a cliff to be put out of the lives of his townspeople because no one wants the margins of daily living to be inclusive of strangers.
Richard W. Wing, Deep Joy for a Shallow World, CSS Publishing Company
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Preaching at Home
Preaching at Home
It is difficult for a preacher to go back home. Everybody knows you. That is the problem. Of all the sayings of Jesus, one of the few things he said that appears in all four gospels is that a prophet gets no respect in a prophet's hometown. To put it another way, "You become an expert only after you move more than ten miles from home."
William G. Carter, Praying for a Whole New World, CSS Publishing Company
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Joseph's Kid?
Joseph's Kid?
Jesus then goes on to suggest that maybe those very detractors in the crowd that day would be asking him shortly for an authenticating sign. Although we have not as of yet been told directly by Luke of any particular work Jesus did in Capernaum, apparently he's been there and done some amazing things. But Jesus is no trained dog or dancing bear and he makes clear he's not going to do any such thing in Nazareth. Worse, he inflames people still more by saying that with the attitudes some were harboring in their hearts at that very moment, the Nazareth populace was not worthy of a divine working. Instead, as in the feckless, sub-spiritual days of Elijah and Elisha, God would work his wonders elsewhere, outside Israel.
Scott Hoezee, comments and observations on Luke 4:21-30._
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On the Way to the Cross
When God's light shines on the way of the cross, you and I are invited to see both the stretch of God's grace and the truth of our own disobedience. Here so early in Luke's Gospel, the Lord's encounter with humanity's self-righteousness and preoccupation with the hometown attitude, it is already driving him to the cross. Before the healings and the teaching and the miraculous catch of fish, before Mary and Martha, and the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son and Zacchaeus, before the rich man who was told to sell everything and give it to the poor and the poor widow who put in everything she had, before all of that, Jesus was on his way to the cross. Before Luke makes it abundantly clear that the Gospel of Jesus Christ would reach into "all the living that you have", Jesus was well on his way.
It's that reach that causes us to squirm, or to keep a safe distance, or to run away. The Canadian theologian Douglas John Hall remembers that Paul Scherer, a great preacher of the past, used to point out that in the New Testament the kingdom of heaven and the life of discipleship is so often described as a great feast, a bounteous banquet. But then that preacher reminds the hearers of the irony that everyone was trying stay away from that feast. Or as Hall himself then wonders, how is it that the theology of "megachurchianity" in our culture assumes that everyone has this strong compulsion to "get as close to Jesus as possible?" To draw near to this Jesus is to encounter the Gospel that confronts and convicts and threatens. And you and I find our place somewhere in Luke's crowd, because if we're honest, the Gospel of Jesus Christ hits too close to home, to the hometown crowd. "They got up, drove him out of town and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff....but Jesus went on his way."
David Davis
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Reminding Us of What We Already Know
When I began my work as a preacher, I spent a lot of time poking around the pages of Scripture for something unusual. My only objective was to find something that would prompt me to say, "This will get them." I would find something in the book of Obadiah and preach on it, murmuring, "I'll bet they have never heard this before." I was right; they had never heard it before. As a result, it had no power. No authority. No sense of importance or urgency.
Once in a while, I would give in and turn to a text that everybody had heard before. At coffee hour, folks would say, "Whew! You really gave it to us today!" Little by little, it began to dawn on me: The power of the prophetic word does not come from roaming a far country where no one has gone before. The real power of the gospel comes from reminding the people of God of what they already know.
William G. Carter, Praying for a Whole New World, CSS Publishing Company
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The Word
The Word
The Sanford Hotel in San Francisco reports that it never lost a single Bible in the 15 years it placed them at the bedside as a service to the guests. But, in one month after it started putting dictionaries in the rooms as well, 41 dictionaries disappeared. Now, I don't know whether you can draw a solid conclusion from that, but on the surface, it seems obvious that persons apparently place a greater value on human words than they do the Word of God.
So, there are words and The Word. Of course, the Bible is the Word above all other words. But we go even further than that in the Christian faith. Jesus is the Word -- the Word become flesh -- and by the Word that He is, we assess all other words including the Bible.
We could have spent the entire sermon talking about the message that Jesus read from Isaiah when He took up the book in the temple.
Maxie Dunnam, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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Fear of the Cure
In order for Jesus to heal us, He must first expose our sins, prejudices, and myths. That process is not pleasant. It made the folks in Nazareth fighting mad. In order for Jesus to heal them, he had to challenge some of their cherished myths and prejudices.
When I was a boy of 7 or 8, I was running through a neighbor's yard one day and stepped on a sling blade. Today's children don't know what a sling blade is, but it was an ancient grass-cutting instrument. My foot was cut rather deeply. I ran and hid. Why? Because I had heard that in such cases a doctor would stitch up the wound, and nothing sounded more dreadful to me than having somebody sticking a needle and thread into me repeatedly like I was a piece of cloth. Fortunately, one of my loud-mouthed friends told my mother and I was discovered. To my great relief the doctor did not stitch me up, though he probably should have. My fear of the cure was for me much worse than my wound. We want the cure that Jesus brings. We want Jesus to forgive and save us, but not to make us change, especially if the changes hurt. We are like the little boy whose bedtime prayer sounded like this, "Dear Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am."
1. The story is told of a Franciscan monk in Australia assigned to be the guide and "gofer" to Mother Teresa when she visited New South Wales. Thrilled and excited at the prospect of being so close to this great woman, he dreamed of how much he would learn from her and what they would talk about. But during her visit, he became frustrated. Although he was constantly near her, the friar never had the opportunity to say one word to Mother Teresa. There were always other people for her to meet.
Finally, her tour was over, and she was due to fly to New Guinea. In desperation, the Franciscan friar spoke to Mother Teresa: If I pay my own fare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk to you and learn from you? Mother Teresa looked at him. "You have enough money to pay airfare to New Guinea?" she asked.
Yes, he replied eagerly. "Then give that money to the poor," she said. "You'll learn more from that than anything I can tell you." Mother Teresa understood that Jesus' ministry was to the poor and she made it hers as well. She knew that they more than anyone else needed good news.
On a Saturday morning, in Nazareth, the town gathered in the synagogue to listen to Jesus read and teach. It was no big surprise. He was well known in the area; it was his hometown. He was raised there. They wanted to learn from him. So when he read from the Isaiah scroll, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor" everyone understood these words to be the words of Isaiah. It is how that prophet from long ago defined his ministry.
On a Saturday morning, in Nazareth, the town gathered in the synagogue to listen to Jesus read and teach. It was no big surprise. He was well known in the area; it was his hometown. He was raised there. They wanted to learn from him. So when he read from the Isaiah scroll, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor" everyone understood these words to be the words of Isaiah. It is how that prophet from long ago defined his ministry.
When Jesus finished that reading he handed the scroll to the attendant and sat down. In that day you sat in the Moses Seat to teach to the people. Today preachers stand in a pulpit. So all eyes were on Jesus, waiting for him to begin his teaching...
_______________________2. "Antiques" and "collectibles" have value because they have survived intact for a long period of time. With the exception of those few things that are made of gold or silver or precious gemstones, the value in most "old stuff" is mostly found in the simple fact that they are still around. Except for the ravages of the plagues like the Black Death pandemic, which killed between 75 million and 200 million people, the biggest and most frequent destructive force in civilization has always been fire.
Alexandria burned.
Rome burned. Paris burned.
London burned.
Washington D.C. burned.
Chicago burned.
San Francisco burned.
For "stuff" to survive these infernos was no small feat. And it makes them valuable.
Then there is the human factor.
Is there anyone who doesn't have this shuddering memory: you're drying a dish, moving a knickknack, or blundering into a piece of furniture -- and suddenly it happens: you watch almost in slow motion as some precious bit of china, some heirloom brick-a-brac, some priceless treasure goes sliding into the abyss. As it slipped from your hands or went sliding off the table, you knew what was about to happen, but were helpless to stop it. Gravity doesn't negotiate. Crash! In an instant a treasured family heirloom is reduced to pathetic pieces.
In today's throwaway culture of planned obsolescence, with instantly outdated plastic and cardboard, "broken stuff" gets routed to the "round file" (the trash can) as quickly as last year's electronics. Artisans of restorations and repair craftsmen are increasingly hard to find. Unless whatever has been damaged was extremely valuable, it is usually not worth the investment to fix it.
Thankfully that has not always been the case...
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3. He Came to Help Us See
Besides freeing us from fear and guilt, Jesus came to help us see. He wasn't talking about physical blindness, but rather, spiritual blindness. We can't see because we are trapped by habits, addictions and illusions of happiness. Therefore we are trapped, oppressed by our own choices and situations. Some of us are in denial. Others of us are reinforced through the enabling of other people. Consequently, we are not free.
One night a tiger trainer was performing at a circus. He went into the cage with the tigers and a huge hush came over the crowd as the doors were locked behind him. Skillfully, the trainer put the tigers though their routine, entertaining the crowd. But, suddenly there was a "pop" and the all the lights went out under the big top.
The trainer was locked inside the cage with the tigers in complete darkness. They could see him with their night vision, but he could not see them. All he had was a chair and a whip for protection. Finally the lights came back on and the trainer finished his performance.
Later in a TV interview, the trainer admitted how scared he was. Then he realized that the tigers did not know that he could not see them. "I just cracked my whip and talked to them," he said, "until the lights came on." (from "Tigers in the Dark," God's Little Lessons on Life for Dad, Honor Books)
Keith Wagner, Liberated and Free
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4. Fulfilling Others?
4. Fulfilling Others?
And the marvel is this: Jesus somehow fits the void in all the far flung instances of human longing. When medieval European artists painted the Holy Family, they usually painted them with typical German, Italian, or Flemish features. It was not imagination or prejudice which made them do so, but the instinctive feeling that Jesus belonged to them; he was one of their people. In our time, Christian artists in Africa and Asia paint the Holy Family with features and coloring appropriate to their world. Again, it is because they feel that Jesus belongs to them.
The mountain church, where a duet twangs out country-western music on a guitar, may seem to have little in common with a Bach rendition from a four-manual organ; but each is seeking to show its adoration of Jesus in its own best way. Here is the common bond between a ghetto storefront church and the massive Gothic structure some miles away: they both bear the name of Jesus Christ; and they each seek, in their own way and setting, to fulfill the human longing. What about you and me? What is the longing in our lives which Christ has filled? "Today," Jesus said, "this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." For you, for me? To what degree are we in the business of fulfilling the scripture in the lives of others?
The mountain church, where a duet twangs out country-western music on a guitar, may seem to have little in common with a Bach rendition from a four-manual organ; but each is seeking to show its adoration of Jesus in its own best way. Here is the common bond between a ghetto storefront church and the massive Gothic structure some miles away: they both bear the name of Jesus Christ; and they each seek, in their own way and setting, to fulfill the human longing. What about you and me? What is the longing in our lives which Christ has filled? "Today," Jesus said, "this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." For you, for me? To what degree are we in the business of fulfilling the scripture in the lives of others?
J. Ellsworth Kalas, Sermons on the Gospel Readings
_____________________________5. Hope
Do you remember the story of Pandora's Box in Greek Mythology? The lovely Pandora was sent by Zeus to be the bride of Epimetheus. One of Pandora's more endearing charms was her curiosity, but that quality also proved to nearly be her undoing. One day Mercury, the messenger, sent a box to the young couple. It was meant for them to enjoy, but under no circumstances were they to open it. Well, of course, it is the old story of the forbidden fruit. Told that she could not do it, it became the thing that she desired to do the most. So one day she pried it open and peeked inside. Suddenly out flew swarms of insects that began attacking them. Both lovers were stung with the poison of suspicion, hatred, fear and malice. Now the once happy couple began to argue. Epimetheus became bitter and Pandora wept with a broken heart. But in the midst of the quarreling, they heard a tiny voice cry out: Let me out, to sooth your pain. Fearfully they opened the box again, and this time a beautiful butterfly flew out. It touched the couple and miraculously their pain was healed and they were happy again. The butterfly we are told was hope. It is hope that sustains us; it is hope that sooths our pain.
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6. Called to Action
At Christmas I received as a gift the book, Holy Sweat, by Tim Hansel. I enjoyed it very much. He tells of a guest preacher in a rather large church who began, "There are three points to my sermon." Most people yawned at the point. They'd heard that many times before. But he went on. "My first point is this. At this time there are approximately two billion people starving to death in the world." The reaction through the congregation was about the same, since they'd heard that sort of statement many times before, too. And then he said, "My second point..."
Everybody sat up. Only 10 or 15 seconds had passed, and he was already on his second point? He paused, then said, "My second point is that most of you don't give a damn!" He paused again as gasps and rumblings flowed across the congregation, and then said:
"And my third point is that the real tragedy among Christians today is that many of you are now more concerned that I said 'damn' than you are that I said two billion people are starving to death." Then he sat down.
The whole sermon took less than a minute, but it is in many ways one of the most powerful ones ever given. He was reminding us we are called not to mere piety but to genuine morality. We are called to action, not to fancy words. Jesus preached a short sermon. But what a sermon! He clearly denotes the kind of ministry he came to pursue. It is to be a ministry to the poor and outcast, the blind and unaffirmed.
James T. Garrett, God's Gift
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7. Love Is an Action
Newspaper columnist and minister George Crane tells of a wife who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband. "I do not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me."
Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan "Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you've convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that you're getting a divorce. That will really hurt him." With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, "Beautiful, beautiful. Will he ever be surprised!" And she did it with enthusiasm. Acting "as if." For two months she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, sharing. When she didn't return, Crane called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?"
"Divorce?" she exclaimed. "Never! I discovered I really do love him." Her actions had changed her feelings. Motion resulted in emotion. The ability to love is established not so much by fervent promise as often repeated deeds.
J. Allan Petersen
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8. Act As If You Do Love
In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
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9. The Opening Moments of Jesus' Ministry
Every four years the new president of the United States gives his inaugural address. In it, he articulates his program or his plan of action for his term of office. See if you recognize the President who made the following remarks:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." - Abraham Lincoln, 1865.
"This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933.
"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." - John F Kennedy, 1960.
Today's Scripture is Luke's version of the opening moments of Jesus' public ministry. We might call this his inaugural sermon.
Mickey Anders, Jesus' Mission and Ours
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10. The Future is God's Gift
Let me tell you about a commencement speech that was addressed to Harvard's Senior Class. On the morning of their graduation, seniors gather in Memorial Church to hear the minister offer words of solace and encouragement as they leave "the Yard" to take their places in the world.
The 1998 senior class heard the unvarnished truth from the Rev. Peter Gomes, minister at Harvard and the author of several books on the Bible. Doctor Gomes took no prisoners that day. He began: "You are going to be sent out of here for good, and most of you aren't ready to go. The president is about to bid you into the fellowship of educated men and women and, (and here he paused and spoke each word slowly for emphasis) you know just - how - dumb - you - really - are." The senior class cheered in agreement.
The 1998 senior class heard the unvarnished truth from the Rev. Peter Gomes, minister at Harvard and the author of several books on the Bible. Doctor Gomes took no prisoners that day. He began: "You are going to be sent out of here for good, and most of you aren't ready to go. The president is about to bid you into the fellowship of educated men and women and, (and here he paused and spoke each word slowly for emphasis) you know just - how - dumb - you - really - are." The senior class cheered in agreement.
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11. Archbishop’s Romero’s “option for the poor.”
Speaking in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus used Isaiah’s prophetic terms, long since seen as referring to the coming Messiah, to describe his own mission. Jesus said he had been sent, among other reasons, “to bring good news to the poor." The success of Jesus’ mission, particularly with the poor who had no political power except that conferred by their sheer numbers, made Jesus a “dangerous” person to the religious authorities of Israel and eventually resulted in his crucifixion. The Christian gospel is still dangerous when its truth is really put into practice. This is clearly seen in the case of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was murdered when, like Jesus, he reminded people of the needs of the poor and the oppressed in El Salvador. The story begins in 1979 when a young priest, Father Grande, was shot and killed on the streets of El Salvador. His "crime" was that he spoke out against the government, which brutally suppressed all forms of protests and executed thousands of innocent people using its notorious “Death Squads.” When Fr. Grande's great friend, Bishop Oscar Romero, was chosen to be the new Archbishop, the authorities thought he would keep quiet on the question of the oppressed poor in that country. Instead, Archbishop Romero became an outspoken defender of the poor and a critic of the state-supported “Death Squads.” To honor the memory of his martyred friend, Archbishop Romero refused to appear in any public ceremonies sponsored by the army or the government. He soon became the voice and conscience of El Salvador. His words and actions were reported throughout the whole world, so that everybody knew the atrocities happening in El Salvador. Archbishop Romero’s fight for human rights led to his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. On March 24, 1980, at 6:25 PM, as Romero was offering Mass in a hospital chapel, a shot from the back of the church struck him in the chest, killing him instantly. Thus, Archbishop Romero died a martyr for the gospel of Christ. As we reflect today on Jesus' words about his mission, let us remember Archbishop Romero and continue to strive to live out faithfully, in our world and in our daily lives, the “dangerous” truths of the “good news” which is Jesus’ gift to us today.
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12. Princess Diana’s “liberation theology”:
Before her tragic death in 1997, Princess Diana was championing the cause of those who had been victims of land-mine explosions. In the weeks following her funeral, the video footage of her last visit to Bosnia ran again and again on televised news programs. Featured in the footage was the Princess, reaching out in compassion to those who had survived the explosion but who would have to live the rest of their lives maimed by the loss of one or more of their limbs. Her care for these wounded members of society was a poignant reminder of what Paul teaches in today’s second reading. Just as every part or member of the human body is necessary to the well-being of the whole person, so is every member of the human family necessary to the well-being of the body of Christ. Therefore each member must be cherished, valued, respected and protected by all the other members.
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13. “Liberation theology” of obesity:
And God populated the earth with broccoli and cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow vegetable of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives. And Satan created McDonald's. And McDonald's brought forth the 99-cent double-cheeseburger. And Satan said to Man, "You want fries with that?" And Man said, "Super-size them." And Man gained pounds. And God created the healthful yogurt, that woman might keep her figure that man found so fair. And Satan brought forth chocolate. And woman gained pounds. And God said, "Try My crispy fresh salad." And Satan brought forth ice cream. And woman gained pounds. And God said, "I have sent you heart-healthy vegetables and olive oil with which to cook them." And Satan brought forth a chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained pounds and his bad cholesterol went through the roof. ………..And Man went into cardiac arrest. And God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery. And Satan created HMOs.
-----------------14. The Shoemaker:
A shoemaker, says Edwin Markham, through a dream was told that he would see Jesus the next day. He waited in his store all day. The only one who came in the morning was a senior citizen. His shoes were worn out. The shoemaker gave him a fresh pair at no charge. In the afternoon came an old woman. She was hungry. The shoemaker promptly gave her his own lunch. As evening approached, a child came in crying bitterly. She was lost. The shoemaker took her home to the other end of town. Returning, he was certain that he had missed his rendezvous with the Christ.
Then he heard a voice. "...I kept my word. Three times today I came to your door. Three times my shadow was on your floor. I was the beggar with bruised feet. I was the woman you gave food to eat. I was the lost child you took home."
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15. The Pregnant Young Girl:
One day I had a particularly beautiful experience that demonstrated the joy that following God's way brings. I was scurrying about the front office when I noticed a teenage girl standing behind some people getting Mass cards. She looked pretty shy. She also looked pretty pregnant. I said to her, "Can I help you, honey?" (OK, so I'm not politically correct.) She told me that she was wondering if this is the Church where she could get some food. I walked her outside and asked her if she was pregnant. She said, "Six months," with a big smile and then told me, That's why I need food, I'm eating everything in sight." I brought her over to the Community Life Ministry where our wonderful volunteers took good care of her with the food you folks bring in. I also brought her to our Pregnancy Center. I asked her if she had everything she needed for the baby. She said she had nothing. So I told her that the people of St. Ignatius have help for her and her baby. She got in touch with one of our counselors and was able to get all sorts of baby furniture, and clothes, and infant toys and general stuff. Before she left she said to me, "You know, I could have had an abortion like some of my girl friends. But I know it is not right. I know there is a baby in me, and I just couldn't live with myself." I'm relating all this to you because I want to emphasize this point: It is not guilt that kept her from having an abortion; it was the joy that she would be doing the right thing by having the baby.
*****
From Fr. Tony Kadavil's Collection:
From Fr. Tony Kadavil's Collection:
1: Saint Oscar Romero’s “option for the poor.”
Speaking in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus used Isaiah’s prophetic terms, long since seen as referring to the coming Messiah, to describe his own mission. Jesus said he had been sent, among other reasons, “to bring Good News to the poor.” The success of Jesus’ mission, particularly with the poor who had no political power except that conferred by their sheer numbers, made Jesus a “dangerous” person to the religious authorities of Israel and eventually resulted in his crucifixion. The Christian Gospel is still dangerous when its truth is really put into practice. This is clearly seen in the case of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was assassinated while he was celebrating Mass because, like Jesus, he reminded people of the needs of the poor and the oppressed in El Salvador. The story began in 1979 when a young priest, Father Grande, was shot and killed on the streets of El Salvador. His “crime” was that he spoke out against the government, which brutally suppressed all forms of protests and executed thousands of innocent people using its notorious “Death Squads.” When Fr. Grande’s great friend, Bishop Oscar Romero, was chosen to be the new Archbishop, the authorities thought he would keep quiet on the question of the oppressed poor in that country. Instead, Archbishop Oscar Romero became an outspoken defender of the poor and a critic of the state-supported “Death Squads.” To honor the memory of his martyred friend, Romero refused to appear in any public ceremonies sponsored by the army or the government. He soon became the voice and conscience of El Salvador. His words and actions were reported throughout the whole world, so that everybody knew the atrocities happening in El Salvador. Romero’s fight for human rights led to his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. On March 24, 1980, at 6:25 PM, as the Archbishop was offering Mass in a hospital Chapel, a shot from the back of the Church struck him in the chest, killing him instantly. Thus, Archbishop Oscar Romero died a martyr for the Gospel of Christ. He was beatified May 23, 2015 by Cardinal Angelo Amato representing Pope Francis and canonized by Pope Francis October 14, 2018, with the designation “Bishop and Martyr.” As we reflect today on Jesus’ words about his mission, let us remember Saint Oscar Romero and continue to strive to live out faithfully in our world and in our daily lives the “dangerous” truths of the “Good News” which is Jesus’ gift to us today. (https://youtu.be/NsqQeo57u8s)
2: U.S. Presidents’ Inaugural Addresses:
Every single Inaugural Address from George Washington’s to Donald Trump’s has been preserved. In these speeches, presidents have laid out for the country their dreams, goals, and aspirations. Here is a part of the speech given by our first president, George Washington (April 30, 1789), when he bravely acknowledged the role of God in his administration: He said, “It would be improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being Who rules over the universe, Who presides in the councils of nations, and Whose providential aids can supply every human defect.” Franklin Roosevelt said on March 4, 1933, “This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly.” Americans remember the role of citizens outlined in President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961), “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. …. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” More recently we call to mind Ronald Reagan’s American Song theme in 1985: “hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic – daring, decent and fair. That’s our heritage, that’s our song… we raise our voices to the God who is the author of this most tender music.” No doubt you were able to identify several of the presidents by the historical references or by the famous lines, and while all of these Inaugural Addresses are important, some are moving, inspiring and worthy of remembrance. Today in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, we have listened to an “inaugural address” delivered not to a Nation but to a synagogue congregation; not in an American city but in a poor village, Nazareth, in Galilee; and not by a man elected by the power of the people but by the God-man Jesus, anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus outlines his mission, vision and dreams in this famous reflection and teaching.
3: Liberation theology of Martin Luther King, Jr:
As a Christian minister, King’s main influence in his fights for the liberation of his people was Jesus Christ and the Christian Gospels, which he would almost always quote in his religious meetings, speeches at Church, and in public discourses. King’s Faith was strongly based in Jesus’ commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself, loving God above all, and loving your enemies, praying for them and blessing them. His nonviolent thought was also based in the injunction to turn the other cheek in the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus’ teaching of putting the sword back into its place (Matthew 26:52).[33]In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, King urged action consistent with what he describes as Jesus’ “extremist” love, and also quoted numerous other Christian pacifist authors, which was very usual for him. In another sermon, he stated: “Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment. You know, actually all that I do in civil rights I do because I consider it a part of my ministry. I have no other ambitions in life but to achieve excellence in the Christian ministry. I don’t plan to run for any political office. I don’t plan to do anything but remain a preacher. And what I’m doing in this struggle, along with many others, grows out of my feeling that the preacher must be concerned about the whole man.”— King, 1967[34][35] In his speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop“, he stated that he just wanted to do God’s will. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.)
4) “Liberation theology” of obesity:
And God created the earth with broccoli and cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow vegetable of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives. And Satan invented McDonald’s. And McDonald’s invented the 99-cent double-cheeseburger. And Satan said to Man, “You want fries with that?” And Man said, “Super-size them.” And Man gained pounds. And God created the healthful yogurt, that woman might keep her figure that man found so fair. And Satan discovered chocolate. And woman gained pounds. And God said, “Try My crispy fresh salad.” And Satan invented ice cream. And woman gained pounds. And God said, “I have sent you heart-healthy vegetables and olive oil with which to cook them.” And Satan invented a chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained pounds and his bad cholesterol went through the roof. ………..And Man went into cardiac arrest. And God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery. And Satan invented HMOs
5) God’s surprise message to three powerful presidents:
There is a story about God calling the world’s three most powerful Presidents for a meeting: Presidents coming from Russia, China and U.S.A. God told them one thing: “The world will end by the year 2020.” The three Presidents went to their respective countries and told their people about what God had told them. The Russian President said: “My dear people, I have two messages to give, both of them are bad news. First, God is real and second, the world will end by the year 2020.” The President of China announced to his people, “My dear people, I have two important messages for you, one unbelievable and God is real. The horrible message is that this God is so fed up with our world that He wants to destroy it.” The American President appeared in the national television to speak to the Americans. He said: “My dear people I have three messages to convey to you, all of them are good news. First, God is still in control of the world. Second, He talked to your President directly. And the third is, our world will end by the year 2020 and all our problems will be over.” In today’s Gospel Jesus stands up in his native synagogue in Nazareth and announces the good news of a loving, liberating and saving God.
23-Additional anecdotes:
1) Liberation theology: A woman in Nicaragua gets eleven cents for sewing together a pair of blue jeans that are sold by an American company for $14.95. That company made $566 million in profits on those jeans in one year. One out of every five Ugandan children will not live to age five because they do not have simple, primary health care. That is not just in Nicaragua. This is not just in Uganda. There are hurts to heal in our cities. There are poor people here. There are homeless people here. There are addicted people here. There are lonely people here. There are oppressed and captive people here. There are hurts that need to be healed! And you ask, “What can I do? Is there anything I can do? Can I be one who stands in the gap between the way things are and the way things can be? Can I be a bridge over which other people can travel in that journey from the way things are and the way things can be?”
2) “Poverty for us is a freedom”:
St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) thinks so. There was a beautiful article about her in Time magazine. She was asked about the materialism of the West. “The more you have, the more you are occupied,” she contends. “But the less you have, the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is a joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. This is the only fan in the whole house…and it is for the guests. But we are happy. I find the rich poorer,” she continues. “Sometimes they are more lonely inside…The hunger for love is much more difficult to fill than the hunger for bread…The real poor know what is joy.” When asked about her plans for the future, she replied, “I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. We have only today to love Jesus.” Is there anyone in this room as rich as Mother Teresa?
3) The Lake Wobegon effect A scandal is brewing in the hallowed halls of Academe. It has to do with test scores given to our young people. A West Virginia doctor noticed some time back that all 50 states claim that their students score above average on standardized test scores. That, of course, is impossible “for everyone to be above average.” Someone has even given this scandal a thoughtful name, “the Lake Wobegon effect.” Lake Wobegon is author Garrison Keillor’s mythical town where, “All the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” Obviously, by definition it is impossible for everyone to be “above average.” Average is what most people are. Nobody, though, wants to admit it. What has Jesus got to do with the Lake Wobegon effect? Just this. How can I look across this congregation, we who have so much, who are so well-fed, so well-clothed, so surrounded by the good things of life, how can I look across this congregation and tell you that Jesus came to save the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed? That’s not us! We are winners. We are stars. We’re all above average. This is one text we can skip over. It’s for someone else. Still, it’s there. Maybe we ought to listen. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,” says Christ, “because He has anointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” What, if anything, is Christ saying to you and me?
4) Jesus the prophet:
In one of his books, David Buttrick tells about a cartoon in a magazine. The cartoon showed three men sitting in a row behind a long table. A microphone has been placed in front of each of them. One man was pictured in long flowing hair and a draped white robe. Another was battered, a wreath of jagged thorns on his head. The third was swarthy, with dark curly hair and a pointed nose. The caption said, “Will the real Jesus Christ please stand?”
Everybody sees Jesus from a different angle, including the writers of the New Testament. For Matthew, Jesus is the Teacher of Righteousness. For Mark, Jesus is an exorcist, constantly battling the powers of evil. Even after Evil nails him to a cross, Jesus emerges from the tomb to continue his saving work. But for Luke, the word that best summarizes the person and work of Jesus is the word “prophet.” In the story we heard today, Jesus is a different kind of prophet. The prophet Jesus says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” When the prophet Jesus says, “Today the Scripture is fulfilled,” he turns memory into mission. He transforms a hope into an assignment. He claims the beautiful poetry of Isaiah as his job description.
5) What is the mission of our Church?
In Rachel Carson’s book, The Sea Around Us, she describes the microscopic vegetable life of the sea, which provides food for many of the ocean’s smallest creatures. She tells how these little plants drift thousands of miles wherever the currents carry them, with no power or will of their own to direct their own destiny. The plants are named plankton, a Greek word that means “wandering” or “drifting.” Plankton describes the wandering plant life of the ocean. [Robert A. Raines, New Life in the Church (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1961).] Plankton may also be a good way to define the life of the Church today. We are wandering adrift. What is our mission as a Church? Why do we exist? From my studies of Jesus’ ministry and teachings, I believe we exist for two reasons: one is to reach individual people with the Good News of God’s love as revealed in Jesus Christ; the second is to influence society to the point that the kingdoms of this earth more closely resemble the Kingdom of God.
6) “The 2% Rule.”
I don’t know if you are familiar with the 2% concept or not, but it is based on the findings of sociologist and educator Robert Bellah, author of the best-selling book, Habits of the Heart (1985). Bellah was for a long time a sociologist at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University. While there, he came to this conclusion: “We should not underestimate the significance of the small group of people who have a vision of a just and gentle world . . . The governing values of a whole culture may be changed when 2% of its people have a new vision.” Think of that! All you need is 2% of the people, according to Bellah, and you can change an entire culture. (http://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/1996-05-26-A-Few-Good-Men/). I wonder if we realize just how powerful we potentially could be. But first we need to define our mission. Jesus called his followers salt . . . he spoke of the Kingdom as leaven. What he was saying is that we should be having an impact on our surrounding culture. A vital Church understands its mission.
7) Liberation starts in individuals:
In 1835, Elijah Lovejoy saw a man lynched. It changed his life. He cut back on his career as a Presbyterian pastor and as a schoolteacher. He went back to his earlier training as a newspaper editor and began to write anti-slavery tracts. He delivered speeches and aroused hostility. People persecuted him, beat him, and finally burned him out of his home. He was injured in combating the fire, and after only two years, he was killed. Elijah P. Lovejoy, a life cut short. A young attorney in Elijah’s home state of Illinois read Elijah P. Lovejoy’s materials and was deeply influenced. Twenty-six years later, that young attorney signed the Emancipation Proclamation. One person! One! Will you be one?
8) “Don’t you want to be free?”
In his book Ghost Soldiers, Hampton Sides tells the story of a dramatic mission during World War II. On January 28th, 1945, 121 hand-selected Army Rangers slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POW’s who had spent three years in a hellish prison camp near the city of Cabanatuan. Hampton Sides describes the first effects of liberation as chaos and fear. The prisoners were mentally too brittle to understand what was taking place. Some even scurried away from their liberators. One particular prisoner, Bert Bank, refused to budge, even when a Ranger walked right up to him and tugged his arm. “C’mon, we’re here to save you,” he said. “Run for the gate.” Bank still would not move. The Ranger looked into his eyes and saw they were vacant, registering nothing.” “What’s wrong with you?” he asked. “Don’t you want to be free?” Finally, a smile formed on Bank’s lips as the meaning of the words became clear, and he reached up to the outstretched hand of the Ranger. The Rangers searched all the barracks for additional prisoners, then shouted, “The Americans are leaving. Is there anybody here?” Hearing no answer, they left. The freed prisoners marched 25 miles and boarded their ship home. With each step, their stunned disbelief gave way to soaring optimism. In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents to his fellow-townsmen his mission of bringing them God’s saving freedom, to their great astonishment and, for some, their disbelief.
9) Liberation attempts in parishes:
One average-sized church in Brooklyn, New York, decided that it would fight a popular clothing company and, in doing so, ended the sweatshops in El Salvador. It was just an average-sized Church that stood up and said, “We are against the exploitation of children.” The Faith Network of Children decided that it would conduct a campaign and close the sweat shop in El Camino, California, where 72 people from Thailand, behind barbed wire, were being paid $1.60 an hour and working eighteen hours a day because somebody stood up and said, “Wait a minute! We are against the exploitation of women.”
In 1977, both Jews and Christians marched in silence during Holy Week in an effort to protest against the most luxurious hotels of California, and particularly Los Angeles, because they were paying slave-labor wages to the people who were making their guests feel luxurious. Some of them had been working there over twenty years and still had no benefits or any health care. Because they got some people’s attention, fourteen of the most luxurious hotels in Los Angeles banded together and signed a commitment that they would pay their employees a living wage and try to provide for them benefits that would be an example for hotels all over the world to follow. This happened because Christians and Jews marched silently during Holy Week.
10) Princess Diana’s “liberation theology”:
Before her tragic death in 1997, Princess Diana was championing the cause of those who had been victims of land-mine explosions. In the weeks following her funeral, the video footage of her last visit to Bosnia ran again and again on televised news programs. Featured in the footage was the Princess, reaching out in compassion to those who had survived the explosion but who would have to live the rest of their lives maimed by the loss of one or more of their limbs. Her care for these wounded members of society was a poignant reminder of what Paul teaches in today’s second reading. Just as every part or member of the human body is necessary to the well-being of the whole person, so is every member of the human family necessary to the well-being of the Body of Christ. Therefore, each member must be cherished, valued, respected and protected by all the other members.
11) Let me tell you about a commencement speech that was addressed to Harvard’s Senior Class. On the morning of their graduation, seniors gather in Memorial Church to hear the minister offer words of solace and encouragement as they leave “the Yard” to take their places in the world.
The 1998 senior class heard the unvarnished truth from the Rev. Peter Gomes, minister at Harvard and the author of several books on the Bible. Doctor Gomes took no prisoners that day. He began: “You are going to be sent out of here for good, and most of you aren’t ready to go. The president is about to bid you welcome into the fellowship of educated men and women and,” (and here he paused and spoke each word slowly for emphasis), “you know just – how – dumb – you – really – are.” The senior class cheered in agreement. “And worse than that,” Doctor Gomes continued, “the world – and your parents in particular – are going to expect that you will be among the brightest and best. But you know that you can no longer fool all the people even some of the time. By noontime today, you will be out of here. By tomorrow you will be history. By Saturday, you will be toast. That’s a fact – no exceptions, no extensions.” “Nevertheless, there is reason to hope,” Doctor Gomes promised. “The future is God’s gift to you. God will not let you stumble or fall. God has not brought you this far to this place to ABANDON you or leave you here alone and afraid. The God of Israel never stumbles, never sleeps, never goes on sabbatical. Thus, my beloved and bewildered young friends, do not be afraid.” What Doctor Gomes did for the senior class at Harvard, Isaiah does for Israel. This is the wonderful part of Isaiah’s ministry. It’s true that he told them they would be destroyed. But he also preached a message of restoration. He stood on the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem and told them there was hope. There would be a year of Jubilee. There would come a time when God would forgive. Listen to Isaiah’s words in chapter 14: “The Lord will have compassion on Israel; once again he will choose his people and settle them in their land. And the house of Israel will possess the nations.”
The 1998 senior class heard the unvarnished truth from the Rev. Peter Gomes, minister at Harvard and the author of several books on the Bible. Doctor Gomes took no prisoners that day. He began: “You are going to be sent out of here for good, and most of you aren’t ready to go. The president is about to bid you welcome into the fellowship of educated men and women and,” (and here he paused and spoke each word slowly for emphasis), “you know just – how – dumb – you – really – are.” The senior class cheered in agreement. “And worse than that,” Doctor Gomes continued, “the world – and your parents in particular – are going to expect that you will be among the brightest and best. But you know that you can no longer fool all the people even some of the time. By noontime today, you will be out of here. By tomorrow you will be history. By Saturday, you will be toast. That’s a fact – no exceptions, no extensions.” “Nevertheless, there is reason to hope,” Doctor Gomes promised. “The future is God’s gift to you. God will not let you stumble or fall. God has not brought you this far to this place to ABANDON you or leave you here alone and afraid. The God of Israel never stumbles, never sleeps, never goes on sabbatical. Thus, my beloved and bewildered young friends, do not be afraid.” What Doctor Gomes did for the senior class at Harvard, Isaiah does for Israel. This is the wonderful part of Isaiah’s ministry. It’s true that he told them they would be destroyed. But he also preached a message of restoration. He stood on the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem and told them there was hope. There would be a year of Jubilee. There would come a time when God would forgive. Listen to Isaiah’s words in chapter 14: “The Lord will have compassion on Israel; once again he will choose his people and settle them in their land. And the house of Israel will possess the nations.”
12) “You’ll learn more from that than anything I can tell you.”
The story is told of Noelene Martin, a Franciscan monk in Australia assigned to be the guide and “gofer” for St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) when she visited New South Wales. Thrilled and excited at the prospect of being so close to this great woman, he dreamed of how much he would learn from her and what they would talk about. But during her visit, he became frustrated. Although he was constantly near her, the friar never had the opportunity to say one word to Mother Teresa. There were always other people for her to meet. Finally, her tour was over, and she was due to fly to New Guinea. In desperation, the Franciscan friar spoke to Mother Teresa: “If I pay my own fare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk to you and learn from you?” Mother Teresa looked at him. “You have enough money to pay airfare to New Guinea?” she asked. “Yes,” he replied eagerly. “Then give that money to the poor,” she said. “You’ll learn more from that than anything I can tell you.” Mother Teresa understood that Jesus’ ministry was to the poor, and she made it hers as well. She knew that they more than anyone else needed Good News.
13) Liberation from hate:
The Walt Disney TV movie, Ruby Bridges, told the story of Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old African-American girl, who was the first person to integrate the schools in New Orleans. Every day the federal marshals escorted her into the schoolhouse, because both sides of the sidewalk would be lined with people who were screaming threats. Robert Coles, a noted Harvard psychiatrist, volunteered his time to work with young Ruby. Every day he would talk with her, trying to help her weather the crisis. On the news one night, he noticed her walking up the sidewalk and the people were screaming and throwing things, but suddenly she stopped and said something and started backing down the sidewalk. Then the marshals picked her up and took her into the building. That night, Cole asked her what she said to the marshals. She said, “I was not talking to the marshals.” He said, “Yes, you were. I saw you on the news. I saw your lips moving. You were talking to the marshals.” She said, “I was not talking to the marshals.” He said, “Well, what were you doing?” She said, “I was praying for those people who were hollering at me. I had forgotten to pray and I was trying to go back and pray for them as I walked to the school building.” Cole shook his head and said, “You were praying for the people who were screaming at you?” She said, “Yes, my mama taught me that when people speak mean of you, you pray for them just like Jesus prayed for the people who spoke mean of him.”
14) The “Cult of the Spectator.”
Our philosophers of history have pointed out to us that one of the sure signs of the disintegration of a society – the decay of a culture – is the growth of the Cult of the Spectator, the Cult of the Stadium, where most of the people never play the game. They just sit in the stadium and watch it. They also state that the test of a religion is its effect on such a culture. The more we recognize the similarities between our culture and that of decaying Ancient Imperial Rome, the more we can see the significance of one of the great passages in Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago. I thought of his words, as a few months ago, I stood on the highest rim of the Colosseum and allowed my mind to stray back 2,000 years to imagine what it had looked like then. Pasternak said, “Rome is a flea market of borrowed gods and conquered people, a mass of filth convoluted in a triple knot, as in an intestinal obstruction. Heavy wheels with no spokes, eyes sunk in fat, sodomy, double chins, illiterate emperors, fish fed on the flesh of learned slaves, all crammed into the arches of the Colosseum, and all wretched. And then, into this tasteless heap of gold and marble, HE came, Light, clothed in an aura, emphatically human, deliberately provincial, the Galilean, the Christ. And at that moment, gods and nations ceased to be, and MAN came into the glory of his being.” Yes, there was vitality in the early Christian culture, so that a handful of slaves and outlaws could easily dump over the whole imperial facade without even raising a weapon. It is the power of the Good News of liberation preached by Jesus, officially starting at Nazareth.
15) Surprise, surprise!
A man wrote into Reader’s Digest with an embarrassing story about his former boss. This gentleman was just stepping out of the shower one evening when his wife called and asked him to run down to the basement and turn off the iron she had accidentally left on. Without bothering to grab a towel or robe, the man headed down to the basement. Just as he reached the bottom stair, the lights came on and a dozen friends and colleagues jumped out and shouted, “Surprise!” His wife had planned a secret party for the man’s 40th birthday. [“Life in These United States,” Readers Digest (Mar. 1997), p. 84.] Not all surprises are good ones, at least at first glance. Jesus had an uncanny ability to take people by surprise–and they weren’t always pleased about it. Take, for instance, the surprise Jesus sprang on the Nazarene congregation in our Bible passage for today.
16) Observing or profaning the Sabbath?
Under the blue laws of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Puritans administered religion to unwilling subjects by means of the whipping post, the ducking stool, the stocks, fines, and imprisonment. Mrs. Alice Morse Earle’s history, The Sabbath in Puritan New England has such examples: “Two lovers, John Lewis and Sarah Chapman, were accused and tried for sitting together on the Lord’s Day under an apple tree. A Dunstable soldier, for wetting a piece of old hat to put on his shoe to protect his foot, was fined forty shillings for doing this heavy work. Captain Kemble of Boston in 1656 was put in public stocks for two hours for his ‘lewd and unseemly behavior’ which consisted of kissing his wife in public on the Sabbath on the doorstep of his house after his return from a three-year voyage. A man who had fallen into the water [and so had) absented himself from Church to dry his only suit of clothes was found guilty and publicly whipped.” In today’s Gospel Jesus offers us his theology of liberation in contrast to the Puritan Blue laws. (Anthony Castle in More Quotes and Anecdotes)
`17) The Courage to Change:
In November of 1984 on one of his PBS Late Night America Shows, Dennis Wholey confessed that he was an alcoholic. He went on to describe a book he had put together entitled The Courage to Change: Personal Conversations about Alcoholism with Dennis Wholey. The book contains frank and revealing conversations with a wide variety of celebrity alcoholics such as rock singer Grace Slick, baseball player Bob Welch, actor Jason Robards, comedian Shecky Greene and Catholic priest Vaughan Quinn. Also, there are heartfelt conversations with Rod Steiger and Jerry Falwell, who are children of alcoholics; and Sybil Carter, whose husband Billy is an alcoholic. Four years earlier, Dennis Wholey confronted his own problem with alcohol and now is on a mission with his book to help other victims of what is sometimes called “the most treatable untreated disease in this country.” Dennis Wholey’s message about The Courage to Change matches our Lord’s message of liberation given in today’s Gospel. (Albert Cylwicki in His Word Resounds; quoted by Fr. Botelho).
18) Homeland:
Edgar Reitz, the German film director, tells the story of how he went home with a friend to visit his mother, and while they were there his mother told a story he had never heard before. The story was of a man from their town who had left his house one day saying he was going up the road to the local inn for a drink. But he never returned home, and no one ever heard of him again. Reitz was intrigued by the story because he was interested in what would make someone leave home without telling anyone, and what would keep him from ever coming back. He was interested in what makes people leave the place they belong to, and what makes some of them come back. Why do some people leave home never to return? What draws some people back – if only to rediscover why they left? Reitz decided to make a film on the theme. He has called it Heimat, which means “homeland”, and it lasts for 15 hours and 36 minutes! The film is a chronicle of one family and one small village in Germany from 1919 until 1982. One of its many appeals is how it depicts the great sense of belonging the people have in the small village of Schabbach when they are born into a place their family have lived for generations. They are born into a particular memory that associates them with people and places and little stories. They are able to call on all this, which gives them a sense of belonging and a hold over their identity. The film shows how, in the passage of time that sense of belonging slowly disappears. But no matter how far people travel from home, perhaps there is always some hope that they can go back. As one character in a poem by Robert Frost says: “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus returns to Nazareth where he has been brought up, the place which gives him the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. (Dennis McBride in Seasons of the Word”; quoted by Fr. Botelho).
19)The current release Amazing Grace.
This film tells the moving story of William Wilberforce and his life-long struggle against slavery in the Parliament of England. This young man of unusual ability and noteworthy power relentlessly appealed to the consciences of sophisticated people to stop what no normal person could stand to embrace. He literally gave his life trying to set people free. What the movie does not include is the fact that slavery was finally, fully outlawed in England on July 26, 1833. William Wilberforce died July 29, 1833. Lest we think slavery to be a problem of the past, there are eighteen to twenty thousand people trafficked in the U.S. each year for forced labor or prostitution. There are twenty-seven million enslaved people worldwide, eighty percent of them women and over half, children under eighteen. A sub-plot of Amazing Grace is the life of John Newton, the preacher behind Wilberforce. A former slave trader himself, Newton lived out the latter years of his life with the ghosts of twenty thousand slaves haunting him in the night. But as he proclaims in the movie, “I am a great sinner, but I found a Great Savior.” I don’t think I’ll ever sing about the “amazing grace that saved a wretch like me” in the same way again. Jesus Christ can do that for you and me.
This film tells the moving story of William Wilberforce and his life-long struggle against slavery in the Parliament of England. This young man of unusual ability and noteworthy power relentlessly appealed to the consciences of sophisticated people to stop what no normal person could stand to embrace. He literally gave his life trying to set people free. What the movie does not include is the fact that slavery was finally, fully outlawed in England on July 26, 1833. William Wilberforce died July 29, 1833. Lest we think slavery to be a problem of the past, there are eighteen to twenty thousand people trafficked in the U.S. each year for forced labor or prostitution. There are twenty-seven million enslaved people worldwide, eighty percent of them women and over half, children under eighteen. A sub-plot of Amazing Grace is the life of John Newton, the preacher behind Wilberforce. A former slave trader himself, Newton lived out the latter years of his life with the ghosts of twenty thousand slaves haunting him in the night. But as he proclaims in the movie, “I am a great sinner, but I found a Great Savior.” I don’t think I’ll ever sing about the “amazing grace that saved a wretch like me” in the same way again. Jesus Christ can do that for you and me.
The values of Jesus proclaim the year of God’s favor for all. This kind of talk got Jesus kicked out of town. But let us not be too quick to judge. These Nazarenes liked the idea of a year of Jubilee. Who wouldn’t be in favor of a little Heaven on earth that grants forgiveness of debts and return of land to original owners? It was the sweet dream of all God’s children in Israel. They hoped Jesus would make it happen. So their hopes rose with this hometown boy. But Jesus led no revolution against Rome. Jesus fit no image of their expected Messiah. Jesus was not elected the Chief Rabbi of Galilee and worst of all, He told the home folks that the Jubilee would be for widows and foreigners and lepers, as well as, you and me. Talk like that gets you in big trouble. So our story ends with Jesus between a mob of angry people and the precipice of a huge cliff.
20) At the cross roads:
The Stranger, novel by Albert Camus, introduces us to Meursault, a young man who commits a murder. The dramatic prosecutor theatrically denounces Meursault to the point that he claims Mersault must be a soulless monster, incapable of remorse and that he thus deserves only to die for his crime. Although Meursault’s attorney defends him and later tells Mersault that he expects the sentence to be light, Meursault is alarmed when the judge informs him of the final decision: that he will be decapitated publicly. Now the young man stands at a crossroads. He has only two ways open in front of him. One is to accept the message of peace, repent and be exonerated. The other is to perish in his obstinacy. Dear friends, God’s laws instruct us, educate us and lead us forward. Finally, we are placed in a situation where only two roads are open before us. There we have to make an ultimate choice: to follow God’s precepts and attain freedom or to discard them and end up in doom. The first reading presents a beautiful scene. Ezra the priest is reading the Law of the Lord to the people. Upon listening to the Law they must choose whether to accept or reject it. Repentant, they decide to follow the precepts of the Lord. (Fr. Bobby Jose).
21) Dictionaries stolen, Bible safe: The Sanford Hotel in San Francisco reports that it never lost a single Bible in the 15 years it placed them at the bedside as a service to the guests. But, in one month after it started putting dictionaries in the rooms as well, 41 dictionaries disappeared. Now, I don’t know whether you can draw a solid conclusion from that, but on the surface, it seems obvious that persons apparently place a greater value on human words than they do the Word of God. So, there are words and The Word. Of course, the Bible is the Word above all other words. But we go even further than that in the Christian Faith. Jesus is the Word — the Word become flesh — and by the Word that He is, we assess all other words including the Bible. (Maxie Dunnam).
22) Rehabilitation:
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and due in no small measure to advances in science and technology, a new methodology dealing with society’s physical, psychological, ethical, moral, and social ills has been developed. Foremost among these methods is that of rehabilitation. From the Latin re, which means again, and habilitare, which means to enable, rehabilitation has been defined as the process whereby: (1) a handicapped or otherwise incapacitated person is restored to useful life through education and therapy; (2) the good name of a person is reinstated; (3) the rank, privileges and rights of a person are restored; (4) a person is returned to his/her former state or condition. Criminal offenders who were once simply relegated to prison to protect society are now being rehabilitated through treatment and training so as to be rendered capable of returning to society and functioning as law-abiding members of the community. Persons with addictions to gambling, drugs and/or alcohol, people with eating disorders, people with other compulsive behaviors, etc., now have hope for rehabilitation by participating in extensive programs offered at special centers by qualified therapists and counselors. Patients with physical challenges suffered as a result of accident or illness (stroke, heart/lung disease, etc.) can also benefit from courses of rehabilitation therapy. In the past few decades some inner-city neighborhoods that had been allowed to degenerate into urban jungles have been rehabilitated through the cooperative efforts of caring citizens. In today’s Scripture readings, Ezra in the first reading and Jesus in the Gospel reading both invite a gathered assembly to appreciate and become participants in another sort of rehabilitation, viz., that which is freely offered to all people through the power of the Word of God. In the second reading, Paul notes that since all believers are members of the same body of Christ, the rehabilitation of each of us is inextricably bound to the rehabilitation of all of us. At the outset of this new year, believers in Jesus are called to be rehabilitated by the power of the Word of God and to participate in the Church’s mission of rehabilitating all of humankind. (Sanchez files).
23) Rehab of Bosnian handicapped:
Before her tragic death in 1997, Princess Diana was championing the cause of those who had been victims of land mine explosions. In the weeks following her funeral, the video footage of her last visit to Bosnia ran again and again on televised news programs. Featured in the footage was the Princess, reaching out in compassion to those who had survived the explosion but who would have to live the rest of their lives maimed by the loss of one or more of their limbs. Her care for these wounded members of society was a poignant reminder of what Paul teaches in today’s second reading. Just as every part or member of the human body is necessary to the well-being of the whole person, so every member of the human family is necessary to the well-being of the body of Christ. Therefore, each member must be cherished, valued, respected and protected. Perhaps Paul’s exhortation can also be understood as an appeal to contemporary believers to offer similar admiration and acceptance to the sanitation worker, teacher and short order cook as to the professional athlete, movie star and media mogul. (Sanchez files). L-19
