A REJECTION AND A WELCOMING.

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR C.
January 28, 2007.
(First Reading: Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19)
(Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13) (Gospel Reading: Luke 4:21-30)

A REJECTION AND A WELCOMING.

When someone comes to us we can either reject him or welcome him. The Scriptures today speak of Jesus' arrival to our world, of those who reject him and of those who welcome him.

Christ Jesus Comes To Our World.
At the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus introduces himself to us, he announces that he is now among us, that his place is with us, in our world, just like one of us. Jesus is aware that everybody knows that he, like us, has a human family: The family of Joseph. So we know that he is human; and now he wants us to know that he is also the Son of God.

Jesus wants to share everything he has with us, human beings; for instance, the fact that he has a family, just as we do; the fact that His Father knew Him "before he was formed in the womb" (Jeremiah), just as the Father knows each one of us.

As the Lord Jesus arrives into our life he tells us that he comes to us as much as a member of the family of Joseph as a member of the family of God the Father. Jesus reassures us that the dignity of his divine family is as real as the dignity of his human family. Jesus introduces himself as someone who is with the Father's family as much as he is with every member of the human family. Yes, with every human being: The great and the lowly, the poor and the wealthy, the ill and the healthy, the born and the unborn, the faithful and the unfaithful.

Now, are we going to reject Jesus or welcome him?
The Rejection.
Those at the synagogue in Nazareth did not want to accept Jesus; they rejected him, because they could not accept that the Christ could come from a human family, the family of Joseph. "Isn't this the son of Joseph?" they asked; then how can he be the Son of God?. In their minds the realization of the promises of God could not come through a human being.

Jesus, however, discloses a different reality, that the only way to accept him is by acknowledging him as what he truly is: God made Man. It is the acceptance of this fact which determines whether we can say that Jesus is truly in us. Jesus himself points out in the gospel that God came "only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon", and that "only Naaman the Syrian" was cleansed of his illness (Even though there were many widows in distress and many ill people in those days). In this manner Jesus emphasizes that, indeed, there are very few people who can accept that God makes himself man, that God is in every human being.

The statement that God had become man elicited not only a rejection among the attendants at the synagogue in Nazareth, but a violent reaction, a homicidal reaction. So difficult it is, indeed, to accept that God has become man.

Why is it so difficult to accept a God made man, to accept that God is in us.
Because it demands a compromise on our part , a compromise to pursue the well-being of all our fellow human beings who live in a world of injustice, inequality and oppression. It is difficult to accept God in us because:
- It is much easier not to commit oneself to honor and respect a God who lives in our fellow human beings.
- It is much easier not to commit oneself to bring about justice, equality and peace to all human beings.

- It is easier not to allow God to disturb our sinful world.

- It is easier "to pay lip service" to Jesus, like those at the Nazareth's synagogue who "spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth".

- It is easier to believe in the "soul" than to believe in the "body", for, after all, we don't see the soul, but we do see the body (For instance, the sick and dying bodies of millions of children in our world).

- It is easier to believe in "heaven" than to believe in the "world", for, after all, so many people want a reward for doing nothing.

- It is easier to believe in the "offense" than to believe in "redemption", for, after all, so many people want to perpetuate a sinful world and to avoid the struggle toward liberation.

- It is easier to believe in "God" than to believe in "man", for, after all, we do not see the "suffering of God" but we see the "suffering of man".

The Welcoming.
Saint Paul in the second reading shows us how we can welcome the Lord Jesus: By living our life for the benefit of all our fellow human beings, by using all that we are and all that we have for the well-being of our fellow human beings. Nothing else will be consider a welcoming of Jesus into our life.

Saint Paul says: "If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love [In other words, if I do not use them for the benefit of the well-being of all my fellow human beings], I am a noisy gong, a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love [In other words, if I do not have my fellow human beings' well-being as my sole purpose], I am nothing. if I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over to be burned but do not have love, I gained nothing". In other words, nothing will allow me to accept God, except my commitment to pursuing the well-being of all my fellow human beings.

Our commitment to the well-being of our fellow human beings "is patient... is kind... it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth". Whenever pursuing the well-being of our fellow human beings becomes burdensome, then Jesus will grant us the strength to "bear all things ... to endure all things with no limits".

Today as the Lord Jesus, God made Man, reveals himself to us, let us welcome him by accepting his presence in all our fellow human beings.