Jesus Teaches Us To Be Steadfast In Our Mission

(By Fr. Dexter Brereton)

I once heard it said by an older priest that it is never a good thing to be assigned to the parish where you grew up. The reasons are largely the same ones that thwarted the ministry of Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel. The people knew him, or better, they thought they knew everything about him that there was to know. They really could not take him seriously. One can here the mild bemusement mixed with contempt: “This is Joseph’s son surely?” as Jesus preaches in his home synagogue.

What is striking in our bible reflection on this reading is Jesus’ inner freedom. He faces the doubt and lack of belief of his own folks head-on. He is in no way unrealistic about his prospects, or lack of them in his own hometown of Nazareth. In fact, he goes on the offensive: “No doubt you will quote me the saying ‘physician heal yourself’ and tell me, ‘We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.” And he went on, ‘I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.’

The critical thing here is his inner freedom. He is not unduly disappointed that members of the community where he grew up were not supportive or were skeptical of his mission. One may assume that he took this for granted.

Nonetheless, Jesus is not content to simply let things lie, he issues a challenge of his own. He presents them with a number of examples drawn from the Old Testament when God’s chosen objects of healing and blessings were not pious Jews, but foreigners. Jews did not have a monopoly on God, simply because they were Jews. This teaching enrages them of course, but he seems prepared for their hostile reaction and at the end of the reading St Luke notes : “…they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.”

Let us ask ourselves: ‘Are there people in my life whose support is critical to me?’ ‘Am I prepared to go on if they do not agree with something I deeply believe God is calling me to do?’ ‘Is the way I live, the way I associate with others or the way I do business, closely dependent on the approval of my friends and relatives?’ ‘Can I go against their opinion for the sake of the Gospel, risking their rejection?’