Our Gospel today finishes the story from last week.  You might remember in last week’s Gospel Jesus went all around the region of Galilee and preached in the Synagogues.  He was praised by everyone everywhere he went.  Then the Gospel last week said that Jesus went to his own hometown of Nazareth, where he grew up as a child.  At the time of Jesus, Nazareth was a small town, somewhere around 250 people or so, so obviously it was a town where, everyone knew everyone.  Upon entering the town, it was the Sabbath, so Jesus went to the Synagogue.  A lot of people had gathered to hear Jesus preach.  I think it is important to think what the purpose and mind frame might have been for people coming to the Synagogue. 

I imagine many of the people were coming to hear somebody who they had known as a child, who had gone off and is now famous.  Imagine you knew someone as a child, who has gone off to college and become a movie star or famous Doctor or author, you would be very curious to see them when they came back to town.  Certainly the news would have spread about Jesus’ healings, and miracles, and all that he had done to all who knew him in Nazareth, and so it is a big deal that the famous person would come back home to their small home town.  It’s probable that many of the people who knew Jesus as a child, heard that he went off and became a Rabbi, and so certainly they would want to go to the Synagogue to hear the Rabbi whom they knew.  So perhaps some of the people went not for religious reasons but human curiosity.

Jesus was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and he found the passage and read: “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”.  Then rolling up the scroll, Jesus sat down, which was the way that all the Rabbi’s preached at that time.  Our Gospel says that, all the eyes in the Synagogue were intently looking at Jesus waiting to hear what he would say.  Jesus then said just a few words, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”.  Let me repeat that for you.  “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”.  What should have been shocking and earth-shattering words, our Gospel today says that “all spoke highly of him and were amazed at his gracious words that came from his mouth”.  They were amazed at his gracious words, of course they were thankful that peace would be brought to the poor, the blind healed, and the captive and oppressed be set free.  They knew that Scripture, they must have heard many Rabbi’s read it in the past and proclaim how at some point God would send a Messiah to do that.  Notice that the people were obviously not fully listening or paying attention, or perhaps they didn’t let the words of Jesus sink down into their hearts.  It did not fully register in their minds that Jesus claimed that He is the fulfillment of the prophecy.  He is the Messiah, the One they have been waiting God to send.  And when Jesus’ words did sink in that Jesus claimed He is the fulfillment, they started to question, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph”.    They must have been wondering how the child they saw grow up, who they thought just went off and became a Rabbi, how could this man we have known all his life be the Son of God?  Understandably they were confused.

But then Jesus goes on to say what might be confusing words for us, but were blasphemous words for the Israelites who finally got what he was saying.  Jesus said that people believed and accepted him in Capernaum and the other cities around Galilee, but not in his own home town of Nazareth.  Jesus then makes the good Jews from Israel recall how the prophet Elijah was not sent to any of the widows of Israel during the drought and famine, but the prophet was sent to a widow in Zarephath.  And how the prophet Elisha did not cleanse any of the lepers of Israel but only Naaman the Syrian.  What is striking is that the widow in Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian were Gentiles, which meant that the Israelites were over-looked for their lack of faith.  So what Jesus is saying is striking.   Although the Israelites are God’s chosen people whom he had saved many times in the past, that because of their lack of faith they did not believe the Messiah they had been waiting for had come.  Gentiles had heard and witnessed what Jesus had done and were coming to believe before them.  And for that, our Gospel says that they threw Jesus out of the town, but miraculously he passed through their midst before they could punish him.

So what are we supposed to take from this Gospel?    It prompts us to look closer at our relationship with Christ.   My brothers and sisters, like the Israelites in our Gospel, there are many people today who still treat Jesus as if he was a Rabbi or a Prophet.  Some say Jesus is just a good person who might have lived at one point in time who has had some influence on people.  They just think that Jesus was a man who said some positive things which would be good for some people to live by, so they treat Jesus as a Rabbi or prophet.  Likewise there are still others who haven’t let all what Jesus said and did dwell deep into their hearts, and the faith is simply an understanding of a story, knowing what others have told them, but they don’t know personally.  Like the townspeople of Nazareth, they think they know everything about God, they think they know who Jesus is because they knew him as a child, but their faith remains from their childhood and they are closed to the fullness of truth.   

However, throughout the Scriptures, Jesus clearly reveals that He is not just a Rabbi or Prophet, he is not someone who simply taught others about God, but that He is the Son of God.  He is the One who was sent, who was sent not just to save us with a mighty force but to come among us.  God, in his love for us, allowed himself to become one of us so that we can know Him, and know him personally and intimately, even as a little child.  It is through becoming one of us that God would save us through a mighty act.  So God is the almighty and all- powerful God, but who also wants to be known intimately by us. And not as someone who we once knew as a child, but one who we still know personally today.  Jesus still announces for all who are really open to hear that He was sent to bring good news to the poor, to heal the blind, and to free the captive and oppressed.  The good news is still good news, God has come and can still give it, and it is still for us to receive.  However, for us to receive and let the good news become good for us, we must take action.  We must let Jesus be the Son of God, we must let God reign in our hearts.  We cannot just treat Jesus like a prophet or Rabbi, even if he was the best prophet spokesperson for God, he still would not be who He is.  We must let Him be Lord of our lives.  We must let God be God in us.  This bears repeating, we must let God be God in us.  Will you ask Jesus into your heart in a deeper way right now, at this Mass?  Will you give him permission to show you anything that He isn’t Lord of?  Will you spend more time discovering Christ in a new and deeper way, if not through our Discovering Christ series, then through your own personal prayer and study, and time in Adoration?  In this Year of Mercy, will you come to the Sacrament of Confession more regularly, pray the Chaplet, read St. Faustina’s diary.  Remember we have a daily Mass on Fridays at 6:30am and Confessions additionally offered at 7pm on Thursdays.  Will you let God reveal himself as a loving God full of mercy, will you let yourself to encounter Jesus in a personal way?  Listen to the encouragement of Pope Francis: “It is the joy of faith, the joy of having encountered Jesus, the joy that only Jesus gives us, the joy that gives peace: not what the world gives, but what gives Jesus. This is our faith. We ask the Lord to help us grow in this faith, this faith that makes us strong, that makes us joyful, this faith that always begins with our encounter with Jesus and always continues throughout our lives in our small daily encounters with Jesus. "

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