Weekly Bible Commentaries, Claretian Communications

Sunday, February 1, 2004

Fourth Sunday of Oridnary Time

Readings:
Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19: I will consecrate you in your mother's womb

Psalm 70

I Corinthians 12:31-13:31: The greatest of these is love

Luke 4:21-30: A prophet is never welcomed in his hometown

First reading

The text from Jeremiah comes in three parts. The first (v. 4-5) refers to the Jeremiah's call to be a prophet, and the second (v. 17-19) tells us about when God sent him as his messenger to the people of the northern kingdom of Israel. The call of Jeremiah is obvious from the start of the account, when Jeremiah says, "The Lord said to me..." The prophet is called by the word to BE the word of God in the midst of the people. God knows before a prophet is born that he wants to use the individual as a prophet, thus suggesting an intimate relationship between the prophet and God. God consecrates the prophet even before he born. The relationship between the prophet and God, and the consecration which takes place in the prophet, are what make Jeremiah's call obvious: he is to be a prophet to the nations. At verse 17, Jeremias becomes the itinerant word of God. He must say publically what God orders him to say. But telling the truth has always been problematic and dangerous because it has to do with the interests of many different people and social structures. Therefore God tells Jeremiah not to be afraid of that with which he will be contronted. Fear is not foreign to those who have a prophetic call. What is most important is that they do not abandon the call because then God might very well just quit calling us, choosing us, consecrating us, trusting us. What worse thing could happen to a prophet? God does not intervene to save the prophet from difficult times, but he does personally give the prophet enough strength to be a pilar of iron inside and a bronze wall outside. The word given to the prophet will be his strength in the fight against the authorities (kings, government bureaucrats, priests, and business owners) which have forgotten their allegiance to God, and which have instead oppressed and marginalized their own people. The strength which God gives the prophet also is found in the prophet's obedience to the word which he receives from and announces for God. This assures him the unending presence of God.

Second reading

This beautiful love song comes from a larger passage in which the Corinthians discuss "charisms." With today's text, Paul categorically affirms that the only "charism" which is absolute is love. The love to which the author refers is not Hellenistic love (eros) but Christian love (agape), which is love given and received among brothers. Wihtout love, the other charisms would make no sense; they would not work. Without love, the prophets words would be empty. Without love, we would not be able to recognize the love of God in our lives. We can divide this love song into three parts. The first (v. 1-3) lists a series of charisms which are nothing without love. The second part (v. 4-7) lists 15 characteristics of Christian love. Seven are spoken about in positive terms; eight are talked about in negative terms. In the third part (v. 8-13) Paul finishes his song reaffirming the eternal nature of love. Among faith, hope, and love, love is the most important, clearly stated, for the Corinthians and for all times. Love is superior to any other charism.

The Gospel Lesson

Last Sunday, after Jesus read from Isaiah in the synagoguge, the gospel writer told us that everyone that was present was looking at Jesus. Today the gospel storie continues. Jesus says that in him the words which he has just read have been fulfilled. He is suggested that he is the Messiah, come to announce the good news to the poor and the oppressed and to declare the year of the Lord's favor.

Verses 22-30 we could divide as follows: v. 22 is the reaction of the people; v. 23 -27 is Jesus' answer; v. 28-29 is the indignation felt by the people, and tells us of their intention to kill him; v. 30 shows us that Jesus was able to escape danger and continued on in his ministry.

It is interesting to note the contrast between the reaction of the people in v. 22 and their reaction in v. 28-29. Initially the people approved of what Jesus was saying. They admired Jesus, who was from Nazareth like they were. But they were unable to see in Jesus the grace of God, nor to hear the good news of God which he was speaking. They weren't able to hear the grace of God spoken in the words of Isaiah, either. All they could see was that Jesus was the son of Joseph. Jesus perceived that his townspeople were not interested in his words but in his acts, which they had been impressed by in his miraculous curing of the sick in other towns. Jesus responded to them, "No prophet is accepted in his home town," making it clear that in Nazareth he would perform no miracles.

In verses 25-27, Jesus refers to the Old Testament in order to explain the situation. The real prophet is not able to satisfy a group of people interested only in his ability to perform miracles or to satisfy their own personal interests Ñ even though he is from a family from the very same town! The prophet is free due to the word of God. The story of Elisha and Elijah reminds the people in Nazareth that these Old Testament prophets had to go to pagan lands to do their work because their own townspeople didn't want to listen to them. It was the woman in Zarephath (v. 26) which trusted in God during their time. Naaman, the only one to be healed of the skin disease mentioned in verse 27, laid aside his pride and his nationalism when confronted with the word of God. The church, then, will recognize in this text the mission to which it is called: to announce the Good News to those on the margins. This is to say that the Word of God is to be shared among family and friends, but this is not the Word's final destiny. It must be a word shared among those furthest away from us, among the people with the most need.

The final words of Jesus made the people so mad that they wanted to throw him off a cliff on the edge of town. It is curious that the poor of Nazareth, subjects of the preferential option of the Good News, became the propogators of hatred and death, unable to appreciate the Word present in their own land. But the Word cannot and will not die, and Jesus continues his missionary walk today in our service to the poor, the marginalized, and the excluded, with a word of life, even though it is always threatened by death by those who turn life into the Bad News of selfishness and death.

Carlos BRAVO, a Mexican theologian, wrote a book that has become a classic: Jesus, Man in Conflict, published by Sal Tarrae, 1986, with various other editions in Latin America. The book is summarized in a popular Biblical tract called, "Galilee, year 30".

CASALDALIGA-VIGIL, The Spirituality of Liberation, Burns and Oates, London 1994, 244 pp, published also as Political Holiness. A Spirituality of Liberation, Orbis Books, New York 1994, 244 pp., and as Liberating Spirituality. A Spirituality of Liberation, Claretian Publications, Manila 1996, 244 pp. The book ncludes a chapter called "The Cross, Conflict, and Martrydom”, available also from the public library at Koinonia Services (http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/biblioteca).

About conflict, see also Giulio GIRARDI, Christian Love and Class Warfare, also available in the Kononia Library online.

For personal conversion

The cross is a symbol of Jesus' rejection by the world, a symbol of conflict. Am I afraid of conflict or of possible retaliation from the powerful, or from society, or from some particular institution? Have I stopped getting involved in the fight for justice and social transformation? Have I stayed on the margins of certain themes in order to maintain my comfort level? Am I afraid of God's preferential option for the poor, because it complicates my life?

For the whole group:

The cross of Christ, on which he suffered the rejection of the world, is not just any ordinary cross. How can we describe it? Who rejects Jesus today? Why? For what vested interests? Jon Sobrino says that the Latin American martyrs of the recent decades are "Jesuanic way" because their persecution and death have had much in common with the persecution and death of Jesus: for the same reasons and by the same persecutors. Comment. Who today are suffering from the same type of persecution and rejection that Jesus experienced?

Prayers of the People

That all Christians will take on the cause of Jesus with happiness and enthusiasm as their own cause and mission, we pray to the Lord.

That Christians in public office, that they might be honest and incorruptible, sharing with the world testimony that it can in fact be changed with a spirit of happiness, we pray to the Lord.

That we might all become aware of our principles and our vocations, without fear of social
pressure, we pray to the Lord.

That today we might make the mission of Jesus Christ our own mission, so that the scriptures might be fulfilled, we pray to the Lord.

That all religions of the world, that we might live in peace, and that we might dialogue and live together with concrete gestures in our search for the face of the One God, we pray to the Lord.

Communal Prayer

God, our Mother and Father, who in Jesus has shown us how to speak the truth without fear of retaliation or conflict, nor the Cross: Help us to be, like him, clear in our mission announcing the Good News to the poor with courage, without becoming fearful of rejection, nor the cross which Jesus himself suffered. We ask this in the name of Jesus, your son and our brother, world without end. Amen.