St Gabriel'S Catholic Church, Archway

Our faithfulness and the love of God How can one know the will of God? The people of ancient times tried to find it out by asking wise persons in the society, some consulting priests or requesting the assistance of those who studied the Holy books. And how do present-day people behave? Some still rely on diviners; others couldn’t care less about the will of God and just choose what pleases them. The Christians have instead a safe and a sure guide: the Gospels. They read them;... reflect on them, pray and during these moments of reflection God reveals Himself. The book of Deuteronomy is showing us another way to discover the will of God, a very simple method, possible and available to all. “Listen to one one’s heart’’ The reading says the law of the Lord is neither obscure nor beyond man’s reach, it is not in heaven, nor is it beyond the seas; it is very near, it is in the mouth and heart of every man. God wants from us what also our heart demands. The law of God stems from the very nature of the human being. We shall find an example of this also in the Gospel of today, that shows us a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan man. It will be only this last who, though ignorant of theological arguments, but rich in compassion, will do the will of God. If our hearts were simple and pure, and not blinded by passions, we would always choose what is according to the will of the Lord. The law of God, continues the reading, is not an arbitrary imposition of a master, but is an expression of what the best part of us urges us to do. How many times do we take the wrong decisions just because we rely on cold arguments and set aside the voice of our hearts!
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Mission accomplished... Seventy-two is a symbolic number. In Genesis 10, seventy-two descendants of Noah were listed and it is said that all the tribes of the earth are descended from them. Thus, Jesus sending out seventy-two of his disciples to share in his mission as we read in this today’s Gospel is an indication that every single person has the responsibility to be a disciple. It is not the reserve of a privileged few; priests and religious. Jesus recognised the enormity ...of the mission as he remarks: “The harvest is rich but the labourers are few....” While statistics indicate that world Christians number over 2 billion (the most of all religions, with approximately 3 out of every 10 people), there are many (Christians and non-Christians alike) for whom God hardly exists in the reality of their lives; people who seem to have little direction and meaning in their lives beyond having a job, getting money and indulging in some level of pleasure. The false value-systems of today’s intimidating secular culture appears to have a hold on the way we think whereby the stock market continues to climb amidst dehumanizing violence and poverty. The disciples are to proclaim the imminence of the Kingdom of God: “say, the Kingdom of God is very near to you”. The kingdom of God is present in persons through whom God acts. To proclaim the kingdom of God is to proclaim Christ in words and action that bring peace, healing and encouragement. It comes into being wherever God reigns; wherever God’s will is done. Christianity is not an end in itself. It is simply an effective and perhaps the most effective way of becoming that altogether new kind of human person Paul speaks about. And if we don’t inspire people to share our faith-vision and the life that follows from it, then there is something fundamentally wrong with the way we are seen to live our Christian lives. Jesus recognises that by our own strength we clearly cannot subdue the evil powers of this world and cure its ills. Hence, that we don’t forget to trust in God’s power in all we do, he directs that we “carry no money bags, no sack, no sandals.” Our security is not in material possessions but in close personal relationship with God. Where they are not received, they are to shake the dust off their feet and move on to new grounds. Problems and failures are inevitable in the life of anyone who seeks to make a difference but sometimes we dwell too long on them that they fester and rob our lives of joy and drive. If we don’t shake off the dust of yesterday’s disappointments, they cling, accumulate and weigh us down. Faithful men and women of God are not those without mistakes or setbacks, they are those who grow through every experience to forge ahead.
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The healthiest meal In the olden days, people did not write their wills. They rather say their wills, usually as their last words before death. In the Second Reading of this Feast of Corpus Christi – the Body and Blood of Christ, Paul recalls the most important part of the spoken will of Jesus before he died: “On the same night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, thanked God for it, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of m...
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“Jesus the good shepherd’’ The gentleness of Jesus the Shepherd leading the flock to flowing water is enhanced by the tenderness of God who, we are told, will wipe away all tears from the eyes of the persecuted. On the one hand, water is necessary for life and growth and that is why the shepherd leads the sheep to the well or watering hole. On the other hand, water in the form of tears, flows from sadness and sorrow and needs to be wiped away. The intertwining of these images... of kindness and mercy indicate how ‘The Father and I are one’. This sentence points to the fact that there is unity between Jesus and God. Therefore we must become one with Christ. This means that we must endeavour to have Jesus’s thoughts, to make our own his plans and to act like him. The good shepherd is the one who walks ahead of his flock to show the safe way leading to pastures and to the springs of fresh water. Jesus is the only true shepherd, His ways and the ways he teaches make all find new life. He protects his flock by laying down his life for the love of His flock. His sheep are those who have the courage to follow in his footsteps. Jesus, the good shepherd who sacrifices his life for his sheep is the sacrificial lamb, he leads his flock to heaven where they will find rest. To be able to follow Christ the good shepherd, it is necessary therefore to be ready to endure hardships and persecutions. This is what Paul and Barnabas are teaching us with their life.
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Divine Mercy On April 30, 2000 (Sunday after Easter), as he canonized the Polish nun Sr. Faustina Kowalska who died in 1938, Pope John Paul II designated Sunday after Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday in honour of the saint. Sr. Faustina was gifted with extraordinary visions and experiences of the Lord Jesus. The most famous of these was the Lord revealing his sacred heart from which came rays of light, red and white which she interpreted as the radiating forth of the Divine Mer...cy. It was significant for John Paul II that Sr. Faustina died as the curtain drew on World War II in which Poland had been decimated by Hitler’s men. He recognised the 20th century as perhaps the bloodiest in human history hence in most need of Divine Mercy. He therefore saw in the visions of Sr. Faustina an indication that God wants to specially bestow His mercy on the dark century. Divine Mercy is mostly manifested in the forgiveness of sins as clearly evident in the events of this Sunday’s Gospel. Cowering behind closed doors were the disciples of Jesus who had abandoned their master at the moment of truth. How very awkward they must have felt as Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst. They must have been scared too that the moment of reckoning has come; the moment of telling off and dressing down, not only for their cowardly behaviour but also for their lack of faith in him. But instead Jesus pronounced peace on them; they had been unsettled and needed that healing of their guilt and awkwardness. The risen Jesus shows his hands and his side lest they forget what they and the world did to him, but he did not follow with words of rebuke, only words of mercy. He goes further to empower them to become the agents of that healing mercy of God in the world; he breathes on them and says, receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you retain, they are retained. The great G.K. Chesterton was asked why he became a Catholic and he said: ‘to have my sins forgiven’. Yet, forgiveness of sin is not only about going to confession; it involves the healing of wounds and division between God and people and between people as brothers and sisters in one family based on truth, love and justice. It was therefore to their credit that the disciples could come together that soon without trading blames over that show of shame at the trial of Jesus. That too is a significant witness to the resurrection
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Because he lives, we can face tomorrow! Easter is an earthquake, an explosion. It is the claim that Jesus of Nazareth, who spoke and acted in the person of God, and was brutally murdered at the prime of his life, was alive again through the power of Holy Spirit. Jesus had to die in the most gruesome way because as a force for good he had to be resisted by a sinful world. Reading through the account of his passion, it is as though Jesus faced the worst of human behaviour; the... explicit betrayal of his friends, the injustice of the Sanhedrin - the Supreme Court - the cowardice of Pontius Pilate, the preference for a notorious criminal, the incredible brutality of the Roman and Temple guard. Worst of all, we see those who mock him even as he hangs dying on the cross. Indeed, he experienced the worst of human dysfunction. It is as though his own goodness draws the worst out of people. He was being crucified by all that can go bad in the world. And he is overwhelmed by it all, he dies, crushed by the evil of the world. This is precisely why it grew dark in the middle of the day as Jesus was dying. Light seemingly gave way to darkness, love to hatred and life to death. Then comes the resurrection! We see Jesus emerge saying ‘shalom’ (peace) to those who abandoned him, saying peace to those who had betrayed him; demonstrating that God’s love and forgiveness can swallow up all the sins of the world. And that’s why St. Paul could exclaim with certainty that nothing can separate us from the love of God; neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor height nor depth, nor any other power can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8). Paul knows this because we killed God, we threw all the evils and dysfunctions of the world at God and God still loves us. That’s Christianity! That’s why the cross of Jesus saves us. The cross is therefore the word through which God has responded to evil in the world. Sometimes it may seem as though God is silent in the face of evil but He has spoken, and His answer is the Cross of Christ which stands for love, mercy, forgiveness. And this, too, should be the answer of the Christian in the face of the evil that continues to work in us and around us. One practical implication of the physical resurrection of Jesus is that it assures the ultimate victory of all people of goodwill; those who, following in the footsteps of Jesus, must face resistance. Secondly, it places under judgment those who want to suppress the truth and others so cruelly. We therefore pray that this extraordinary event will re-assure those who face the daily challenge of evil forces to persevere and that it will dissuade all forces of evil from their evil ways.
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Name your donkey We have just had the overpowering drama of the passion with Jesus as the tragic hero. But there were also many “supporting” actors and actresses whose performance elicited all shades of emotions from us; We shuddered at the treachery of Judas’ kiss of death. We watched in disbelief as Peter blatantly denied ever knowing his Master and friend with whom he had just shared a meal. We were disgusted with the fearful an...d superstitious Herod and saddened by the politicking of Pilate. We were angered by the soldier who slapped Jesus. We were surprised at the reluctance of Simon to help him carry the cross. We were appalled at the cruelty of the crowd. But we were also reassured by the compassion of Joseph of Arimathea who lovingly took his body for burial. We were equally comforted by the predictable faithfulness of Mary. No one can escape the cross but you can choose how you respond. It would therefore be worth reflecting in which of these scenes I can see myself, with which of the characters can I be identified. I am drawn, however, to an aspect of the story which we may easily overlook but which actually tells the whole story of how the passion is calling us to respond. It is the story of the unnamed donkey owners who lent Jesus their donkey for the ride into Jerusalem as we heard in the preliminary reading before our procession with palms. What a different story we would be telling today if the unnamed owners of the donkey had refused to give it up? Maybe we would have no story of the triumphal entry, at least not in the way Jesus wanted it. The lesson of the donkey owners is that no matter how unknown a person is, he or she can still play a crucial role in the unfolding of God's plan. Each of us has got a donkey that the Lord needs; something in our lives, which, if given back to God, could, like the donkey, move Jesus and his story further down the road. The donkey was untied so that it can provide the service of moving Jesus down the road; we can be tied to so many things that we think are important; ambition, power, money, status, job, but these in fact tie us down. Pray, let someone come along at the Master’s bidding and untie and liberate you from all that is limiting you from doing the Lord a service.
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God of compassion and love “I do not condemn you,’’ Jesus told the woman caught committing adultery. God is not one who needs to be told what He should say or do. The story of the woman caught in the act of adultery wonderfully illustrates the teaching of Jesus that no one is qualified by their own righteousness to condemn another. Judged by the standard of God’s absolute holiness every man is an adulterer and worthy of death. Moral judgements are only safe in the mind of the... all-knowing and Holy God, because we are incapable of seeing a person’s heart or knowing their relationship with God. At this stage of our Lenten observance, let us reflect and ask ourselves why we are so condemnatory and judgmental. If we look deep and honestly enough we will find that our condemnation of another is a projection of our self-condemnation. The Gospel describes how Jesus behaves with those who commit sins. Here, too, the human way of thinking is totally different. God is much greater than the human hearts and does not condemn anybody. Strange enough, there is no mention of her partner. One cannot commit adultery alone: why was he not caught? It is always the same thing; aggressiveness, violence and passions are constantly vented on the unarmed, the defenceless and the weak, while the powerful get away unpunished. Jesus will always side with sinners because he has come to call them for conversion. Lent is a time for changing our hearts. We need to seek the company of Jesus to be able to experience his love and forgiveness.
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The Prodigal Sons The fall of the wayward son began, not when he started living recklessly far from home but the moment he claimed his rights; separating his interests from that of his family. The desire to move on and face the responsibilities of adulthood is natural but moving on as freeing oneself from authority is the bane of youths. The father allows his younger son to leave; sometimes the worst thing that can happen to us is God allowing us to get what we want to teach... us that our selfish desires can’t satisfy. We should therefore beware of what we ask for because we might just get it. The prodigal son got what he wanted, but lost what he had. He got ‘freedom’ but ended up a slave; working for a stranger, the very thing he could not do for his own father. Worst still, he feeds pigs; the most demeaning job for a Jew. Sin promises freedom but it only enslaves, it promises success but it only brings failure, it promises life but the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). To his credit however, as he hit rock bottom, he came to a crushing sense of his foolishness. This contrition is not a moment of depression as many feel it, but that of liberation. An alcoholic usually needs to end up in the gutter before taking the decisive step towards sobriety. That life-changing step is captured in what Jesus says about the lost son, “He got up...” While this sounds simple, it takes courage to get up to face the possibility of rejection and scorn. He did not repent and remained drowned in guilt. He turned resolution into action and embarked on the long and difficult journey home. The appalling behaviour of the wayward son is not in doubt and his humiliating sufferings served him right. But that’s not the reaction of the father who still stands watching and waiting at the spot where the son left him. He didn’t run after him into the wild neither did he go back to his comfort. When he spotted him still a long way off, moved with pity, he breaks protocol and runs out to embrace him. The attitude of the father demonstrates the ways of God which could be difficult for us and the sulking older son to understand attitudes (the older son). Those of us who lead quiet and seemingly “responsible” lives may very well fall into the trap of sullen, resentful and angry attitudes toward others who seem to be “getting away with murder.” What we need to ask ourselves is whether we have the kind of love that can understand why others, often less privileged than ourselves, may need both correction and forgiveness.
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Time to convert. The call of Jesus to convert is an invitation to change the way we look at things in life. All that happens must be seen through the eyes of faith trusting in God. Jesus tells those who informed him about the crime of Pilate; ‘’unless you repent you will all perish as they did’’. Why? Because they entertain thoughts of violence and revenge, and these feelings are not God’s feelings. It is urgent that they review their stand, and give up relying on the power ...of the sword. Unfortunately, they are not ready to convert. What kind of change of attitude is God asking us during this Lenten period? What are the thoughts which are incompatible with the Gospel and yet we entertain and that we should instead shed? How long do we have to make this change? Can we put it off for some years or months? In the second part of the Gospel today, Jesus is using the parable to tell us that we are asked to make an urgent change since the time of life we have is very precious, not an instant should be lost. As soon as one sees the light of Christ he/she should jump up and follow it, immediately. While the other evangelists speak of a fig tree-tree that is immediately or almost dried, Luke the evangelist of God’s mercy, introduces a year of tolerance. It is an invitation to look on this Lenten period as a moment of grace, as the precious year mentioned in the parable. If we haven’t yet decided to convert and modify our thoughts, plans or behaviour, it is high time we started doing it. Jesus rejects the idea that personal misfortune is God’s punishment for sin. In the parable of the fig-tree we have read today, it tells us that God is ready to give us another chance. Perhaps there have been times when you saw yourself like the tree in the parable - useless, merely a waste of space. Think of a friend who came to you at such a time: people who saw your potential and were prepared to give you another chance, people who also dug the soil around you, watered you, and gave you the help you needed to grow. Perhaps in your turn you have been able to do something for others. Yet we need to keep in mind that NOW is the opportune moment to act.
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Not in our stars ... but in ourselves Just before the transfiguration incident in today’s Gospel, Jesus had told his disciples about his approaching crucifixion and death. That jolted them. They had left everything to follow Him as the Messiah whom they thought would conquer their enemies and restore the fallen Kingdom of Israel only for him to disappoint them with such hopeless news. That’s not their vision of the Messiah. What kind of Messiah dies like a common criminal? Wh...at’s the point following him then? Is this all there is? They therefore needed some re-assurance and this time Jesus did not let them down. He took them up through the transfiguration experience where they saw Him transformed in a new light, dazzling, amidst citizens of heaven (Moses and Elijah) with the voice of the Father confirming that indeed he is the Chosen One. This greatly boosted their morale, assuring them that they are in the right path. It was such an awesome experience that Peter could not help but ask that they remain there. But, was it a new Jesus that they saw in that experience? No! It is still the same Jesus but seen now with a purer and clearer vision which is possible only from that ‘height’ on which he elevated them. The experience thus calls us to rise to a new height, above the prejudices and primitive tendencies that distort our vision in order to have the right view of things in the broader picture. Looking at the broader picture, they could see that the impending death of Jesus which had earlier frustrated them was indeed an important piece of the puzzle that would play a key part in his glorification as the Messiah. Friends, there are times in our lives when looking at our circumstances, we wonder in frustration like the disciples “Is this all there is?” But the transfiguration experience demonstrates that if we can rise above our set ways and myopic view of life, we can see the broader picture which holds much more promises from life’s experiences. Seen in the light of our limited and distorted human vision, people and things around us may look hopeless, common and sometimes different and repulsive. Our worries are resolved more by changed view of life than by changed circumstances. We do not need to see new things; we need to see the same old things with new eyes. It is not about seeing new people, but seeing the same old people with new eyes. We do not need to hear a different voice; we need to hear the same old voice with different ears. We do not need to escape the circumstances of our life; we need to be more fully present to life’s circumstances. When these happen, life is no longer lived at the surface. These are the transfigured moments; moments when the circumstances of our life have become windows into a new world, into a new way of being and we come face to face with the glory of God. Circumstances have not changed, we have changed and that seems to change everything.
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Temptation is a common human experience The temptations were a step for Jesus in his growing understanding of his mission and of his relationship with his Father. Behind each of the temptations is a basic temptation to lose trust in God. Jesus resisted this because he recognised his complete dependence on his Father. We grow in self-knowledge, in our capacity to relate to others, and in our trust in God when we work through times of questioning and doubt. In this way we lea...rn the limits of what we can do, and our capacity to do more than we first imagined. In hindsight we may even be grateful for some of the struggles we have had. The liturgy of the first Sunday in Lent every year, directs our meditation to the temptations of Jesus. The reason of this choice is to encourage Christians to face their own temptations by learning how to identify them and how to get over them, taking the example from their Master. When we read the text for our liturgy, we might get the impression that his temptations can’t help us much. However, they open for us the way to understand our own temptations, although the temptations of Jesus are different. Our own temptations are a much more serious affair, more difficult to overcome and do not last for only one day: they go on throughout our life. The Gospel today is not an account of eyewitness but a catechetical lesson and to teach us that Jesus, right from the beginning of his life, was tested not by three but by all types of temptations. To put it simply, these are three parables, that through images, tell us that Jesus was tempted as we are tempted, with the difference that sin never overpowered him. They symbolised his continuous fight against evil in order to keep the will of his Father.
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To be Christian is to be radicalised (Part 2). In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches that if someone slaps you on the right cheek, you should turn the other cheek. This follows one of his hardest commands: "Love your enemies" which he gave at the beginning of his public ministry where he presented his model of life in radical terms. At first, the injunction appears hopelessly unrealistic and a recipe for tyranny. Are we to sit back cowardly and allow people trample on us? Is self-...preservation not the first law of nature and self-defence not a fundamental human right? Yet, revenge remains a right not a duty. That someone marks me as enemy is beyond my control but I am able to control my response to them; I can refuse to be their enemy. I am not bound to "get back" at them. The love of those who can’t love you back is the ultimate test of love. It is the purest love because it is love without strings attached. Loving people because they loved us is repayment and loving people because of what we stand to gain is self-interest. Doesn’t Jesus question, “If you love those who love you, or do good to those who do good to you, what credit is there for you, even sinners do as much.” In the first Reading, driven by mad jealousy, King Saul went after young David to kill him. But the tide turned as David found Saul and his army in deep sleep where they had camped. David could have easily killed Saul with one thrust of his spear. But one of the greatest tests of your moral strength is what do you do when the tide turns and suddenly your enemy is delivered into your hands. David rose to the occasion and spared Saul’s life, notwithstanding his wickedness. Thus, far from being cowardly, to go by this teaching requires tremendous inner strength and a strong sense of security. It furthermore demonstrates one’s strong sense of the inalienable dignity, value and rights of every other person irrespective of how they behave. By hitting back, one lowers oneself to the disgraceful level of the aggressor. When Jesus was struck by a soldier before the Jewish Council of Elders, he did not retaliate but firmly asked: “If I have done something wrong, tell me; if not, why do you strike me?” In this way, Jesus gave up the right to revenge while at the same time standing firmly against all forms of abuse. Moreover, hitting back usually spirals unending vicious circle of violence. Israel and Palestine is a good example. Mahatma Gandhi notes that "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." To break the chain of violence requires the will to give up the right to revenge and absorb violence without passing it on. That’s surely not cowardly. It is not succumbing to evil but responding to evil with good (Rom 12: 17-21) and it does not mean that the demands of justice is undermined, on the contrary, Christian love, which manifests itself especially in mercy, is an achievement superior to justice.
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To be Christian is to be radicalised. Happiness contentment is the ultimate desire of every heart but the problem is that what people think will bring them happiness does not always bring true and lasting happiness. In the Gospel of this Sunday, Jesus makes prescriptions for lasting happiness that are clearly countercultural - at variance with the prevailing social norm. He says “How happy are you who are poor...” (the world would more likely say “Happy are you who are rich...”). He says “Happy you who are hungry ...” (the world would more likely say “Happy you who are feasting ...” He says “Happy you who weep ...” (the world would certainly say “Happy you who are having fun...” And where he says “Happy are you when people hate you....” the world would most likely say “Happy are you when people love you ...” It is hard to reconcile these teachings with the values of the society in which we live and which we are used to. Presenting the poor as happy and the rich as unfortunate appears like a contradiction. Does the Church not always condemn the world’s poverty and do many churches not preach prosperity? Jesus is however speaking of the Kingdom of God but not just as a future life. It is also in the sense of the godly society he envisaged as expressed in his mission statement where he stated that he has been anointed to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty captives, recovery of sight for the blind, freedom for oppressed and the year of the Lord’s favour (Luke 4:18-19). It is the society he died working to realise. There is only good news for the poor and the hungry in such godly society that will protect and care for them. It is still a long way to go in making it a reality but we all have a part to play towards its full realization. This is the mission of the Church hence the Gospel addresses especially the disciples of Jesus; those who have identified themselves fully with his mission and vision of life. Because it is countercultural, to be a child of this kingdom entails a radical change in the way we see life and its values, trusting in God who choose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise and what is weak in the world to shame the strong (1Cor. 1:28).
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Who is qualified for God’s work? The calls of Isaiah, Paul and Peter in the three readings of this Sunday all indicate that God can use anybody to do his work. It is not about our qualifications, expertise or experiences. We are not invited on merit. It is by the grace of God hence it’s all about our willingness to cooperate with that grace. However, God qualifies (empowers) us when we accept in faith to work for Him. Encounter with God leads us from the shallows to the dee...p. Jesus tells Peter to launch his net into the deep water for a catch. Often we loiter evasively at the peripheries of life, neither adding dept nor substance. God wants us to stop playing around and do more. Like Peter, we should take that leap of faith. When Peter did, casting his net in the hot afternoon that is unfavourable for fishing, they made such a huge catch. It is an assurance that when we answer God’s call and humbly follow his directives in our lives even when it seems against all common sense, we achieve mind blowing results. Today, the Lord continues to ask as the Prophet Isaiah heard him ask: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” God needs his followers to continue the good work of emancipation of people which Jesus had started. Jesus himself had declared that his followers are empowered to do even more than he did. And there is so much to be done. Today, the world is under siege; billions are desperately poor and hungry living on less than £1 a day. More than half a million children under the age of five die daily from water-borne diseases. Nearly two million are trafficked and exploited in sex trade. Eighty-five million children are subjected to child-labour. Wars and conflicts are wreaking havoc. Pandemic diseases are spreading. Ethnic hatred and racism are intensifying. Terrorism is becoming a hydra-headed monster. We can’t fix all the world’s problems but as Jesus said, if you could give as much as a cup of cold water, it sure makes a world of difference to the one thirsty person. Remember, God takes no excuses; he didn’t take the excuses of Isaiah, Paul and Peter that they were incompetent. So, if you feel unworthy and incompetent, know that it is only people who feel that way that God uses. So, take courage and respond like Isaiah, “Here am I; send me!” The Lord himself will empower you for the job.
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The Church as the Prophet of God After unveiling his five-point programme, Jesus now moves to implementation. However, he starts with those who are not from his own village. He worked many miracles in Capernaum and people believed in him. When he went to his own village he did not work miracles there due to lack of faith. The villagers of Jesus are enraged with him, in the first place because he refused to work miracles in his own village. If he is the Messiah, let him do ext...raordinary deeds like Moses. They expect a ‘’son of God’’ and find instead a ‘’son of a carpenter’’. What disappointment! What is the use of beautiful words, without proving one’s authority? What do you think of this demand for Jesus to work miracles? Is it a sign of faith? No, it is the opposite of faith. Jesus has not come to solve the problems of the people who demand from him a sign without faith. He has not come to save by military power where they should force him of what to do, but by proclaiming his gospel and by giving up his life. The miracle is his word, this is what works when people listen to him, their lives are transformed. He has come to create a new life by freeing people by what he says. We find an even greater provocation in the gospel today. To explain the reasons why he does not do in his village what he had done at Capernaum, Jesus recalls the examples of Elijah and Elisha: both of these prophets instead of helping people from their own country, helped foreigners. The people of Nazareth could not see clearly what Jesus means; he wants them to accept that the salvation of God is not a privilege reserved only for Israel. This is too much! They are already annoyed because, abandoning their village, he had gone to live in Capernaum, a commercial town full of pagans and where the observance of the law was not really felt as a priority. The words of Jesus irritate the assembly further: they challenged their narrow-mindedness. They also understood the meaning of another detail that had taken place during the time he read the word and said ‘this text you listen to is fulfilled’, that he has come to do the will of God, who has fulfilled the word promised long ago. To be good Christians, we need to understand the words of Jesus and let them make us know God and love those he has come to liberate. He has come to liberate those who listen to the word of God and keep them in their hearts.
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The gospel: manifesto of Jesus. When Jesus started his public ministry, he gave his manifesto, what he wanted to fulfil in his ministry. At the main event of the Jews’ worshipping time, he went and read the scroll and sat down to explain. The work of explaining the readings in the synagogues was done by elders. However, Jesus is just thirty years and attended the celebration of the community. That day he had no expectation of being invited to explain it. However, he had no d...ifficulty in explaining it and, more still when he was explaining it, he said that all he read from the scroll had been fulfilled. Whoever sat down to instruct others was seen as a master, a teacher. In the Gospel today St, Luke wants to tell us that Jesus is now our master. All attention must now concentrate on him alone; we must not look to anyone else. All the books of the Old Testament lead to him. Once this goal is achieved, then we can roll up the scroll to start action. Why should we still read the Old Testament in our celebrations? Because it is indispensable to our preparation to listen to Jesus. He is the one who is sent to bring the good news to the afflicted and the poor. In few words, the word of God should bring the liberation of people from all types of slavery. Our communities should keep proclaiming hope and thus continue the work of Jesus of liberating people. How does our community open up the eyes of the blind? They must stand up to proclaim love and joy. As the master, we should help to identify the situations in our communities which still hold people captive. For example, all rights of men and women are upheld and people are protected in all forms; the economy should favour all and all must feel protected, so that the joy of the Lord is in the hearts of all. Good laws and well understood guidance be given to men and women so they may live in joy.
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