Homily - 31 January 2010

The Fourth Sunday of the Year (C)

Dear brothers and sisters,

The Savior proclaims, “Today this Scriptures passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). What passage is it that is fulfilled?

Jesus today is present in the synagogue in Nazareth and has just sat down after proclaiming the ancient prophecy of Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord (Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1-2).

After he spoke these words, Saint Luke tells us that “the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him” (Luke 4:20).

By proclaiming these words, Jesus announces the coming of the appointed time, the time of the Messiah, the fulfillment of the promises of God to Israel. Receiving such grand and long-awaited news, “all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth” (Luke 4:22).

All were to drawn to Jesus because of his words and in him they thought they saw their hope fulfilled. In this respect, many today are not unlike those men of old.

Yet, “they treated these words as worthless,” these words which at first they found so gracious and attractive. As they considered his words, they doubted him who spoke them, asking, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph” (Luke 4:22)? Isn’t he one of us? Who is he to say such things to us?

What was it that caused such a change in them, so much so that “they rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong” (Luke 4:29)? What was it that so infuriated them?

Christ Jesus rebuked them for finding his words so gracious yet not acting upon them, as their ancestors had done; though they spoke highly of him, they would neither accept him nor follow him. In short, he acted upon the word of the Father: “Stand up and tell them all that I command you,” and for this they rejected him whom they welcomed so warmly (Jeremiah 1:17). In this respect, many today are again not unlike those men of old.

As it was in the days of Saint Francis of Assisi so it is in our own day. There are many who profess the faith of Jesus Christ, yet have only “a superficial faith that does not form and transform life.”

Too many today try to live their lives as though their lives were a sort of town, with each building being a separate sphere of life, a separate aspect, which are loosely connected to each other but not necessary or integral. Too many view their faith in this way, as simply a small building down a back alley, rather than the square which lies at the center of town and connects everything together and influences all aspects of life, a square that is necessary for the town’s very existence. These are those who drive Jesus out of their towns, out of their lives, and seek to drive him over the cliff, yet he simply passes through the midst of them to call on them another day (cf. Luke 4:30).

The theological virtue of faith, which the Lord gives to us in Baptism, is given us to form and transform our lives, not to be hung on the mantle or worn as an ornament.

There are too many today who claim the name of Christian who do not truly live their faith fully; what is worse, there are those who simply do not care to try and live out their faith out of love for Christ. Some of these are here among us today, and many more are not.

These are those who drive Jesus out of their lives because they refuse to be transformed by his gracious words and live according to his commands.

Too often we, too, we speak well of Jesus praising his gracious words, his kindness and compassion, his willingness to go against social norms, but when he plainly tells us we must change our lives, we “are filled with fury” and refuse to listen to him (Luke 4:28).

There are many who claim the name of Christian but make little or no effort to arrive early to Mass to prepare themselves to worthily receive the Eucharistic Lord, and there are those who, like Judas, routinely leave Mass before being sent out to carry the love of Christ into the world.

There are too many today who say they follow Christ, but reject his teachings on marriage, divorce and sexuality. There are those who say they follow Christ, but ignore his teachings on justice for the poor and downtrodden. There are those who claim to follow Christ but ignore his teachings on the sacredness and dignity of all human life, from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. These are those who keep Jesus at a distance, quarantined, almost, and refuse to let their faith transform their hearts and minds.

If we are indeed followers of Jesus Christ, if we wish to receive the blessed joy and fulfillment he promises, we must let the faith he has given us have the central and unifying place in the town of our lives; everything we think, do and say should be done in the light of this faith, allowing it inform us and transform us. We must allow ourselves to be conquered by Christ; we must yield to him who is love.

If we are to live in this way we must fix our eyes intently on him, to see him “face to face” (I Corinthians 13:12). If we keep our eyes fixed on him and learn from him, imitating him in all things, we “shall know fully, as [we are] fully known” (I Corinthians 13:12).

Let us not be like those who reject Christ because he asks too much of them. It is not that he asks too much but that we expect too little of ourselves. All he asks is that we love, fully and authentically; is that really too much to ask? Those who truly live in love grow in holiness and become like him, and this he desires of each of us.

He gives to each of us whatever graces we need to live holy lives, to love as he asks of us; all we need do is cooperate with the grace he gives us.

From his Cross, the Lord Jesus said, “I thirst” (John 19:28). Even now he thirsts for our love! Let us not leave him thirsty, but let us quench his thirst with our eyes fixed intently on him and our hearts rooted firmly in his! Let us not live our faith in a weak and superficial way, but in a manner befitting true and authentic disciples to quench his thirst! Let us bring his love to the world, that, with him, we might announce a year acceptable to the Lord. Amen!