Our gospel today is the second half of the account of Jesus in his hometown. Last Sunday Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah promising there would come an anointed one filled with the Spirit who would heal, restore, set free, and declare a year acceptable to the Lord. Jesus proclaimed the Word and then simply told everyone. “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” Talk about your “drop the mic” moment. Continue reading
In the previous posts we had raised the investiture controversy, one sign of the interplay of civil and ecclesial authority, power, and mission. Even with the investiture controversy “on the back burner” for the moment, the siren’s call of power and influence revealed its presence. By the start of the 14th century, the papacy was firmly ensconced in the mix of European politics. Pope Boniface VIII famously claimed all spiritual and temporal power, i.e., all kings ruled at the good pleasure and grace of the pope. It was an age of expanding national powers and the decline of the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Urban locked horns with Phillip IV of France. Phillip was a major proponent of separation of church and state, immediately taking the initiative to remove all priests from civil positions and to tax them as citizens of the realm.
Boniface excommunicated Phillip who responded by decreeing laws prohibiting the export of gold, silver, precious stones, or food from France to the Papal States. These measures had the effect of blocking a main source of papal revenue. Philip also banished from France the papal agents who were raising funds for a new crusade in the Middle East.
Money ever an ingredient in the stew pot of civil and ecclesial life; ever incendiary at their intersection. Continue reading
We’ll conclude our exploration of this coming Sunday gospel with a final thought from Alan Culpepper, from his commentary “The Gospel of Luke” Continue reading
Today is the memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, a Doctor of the Church, and medieval scholastic philosopher and theologian. His best-known works are the Disputed Questions on Truth, the Summa contra Gentiles, and the unfinished but influential Summa Theologiae. The first reading for the memorial is from the Book of Wisdom. There are commentaries a plenty on the whole of the book and I would not attempt such a effort, but I would note that, (a) besides being a great source of a reading to honor St. Thomas, (b) it has importance for our times.
For several days we looked at the perils of being a “hometown prophet.” In today’s exploration of this coming Sunday gospel, we will see the “blowback” from the people.
28 When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. 29 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. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went away
The people of Nazareth began to act on their rage and drive Jesus out of town. The end of this scene is so condensed that interpreters have often felt the need to fill in conjectural details. The scene in question cannot be located with any certainty. Nor is it necessary to speculate about a miraculous deliverance or the force of Jesus’ personality or presence. The intent of the crowd was hostile, but Luke emphasizes that Jesus was not stopped by them. The emphasis is on the last word, which in the Greek text is a verb that implies a continuous action: “He was going on,” The verb (poreuomai) recurs frequently in Luke as the Gospel narrates the journeys that eventually lead Jesus to Jerusalem and the cross.” [Culpepper, 108]
As they were herding Jesus out of town to kill him, he slipped away. In Luke’s Gospel, he never returned to Nazareth. The next passage, just beyond the ending of our reading for today, tells of Jesus returning to Capernaum and again doing great and wonderful things there, and the reports of him circulated throughout the country (4:37, 43-44). The contrast could not be greater. Those who should have known his mission and participated in it, those who knew him best, could see no further than their own wants and their own interests. They drove him out because he not only had dared to share the good news with others, he had brought them face to face with their own narrowness and closed future.
Over this story falls the shadow of the cross, for this will not be the last time that Jesus would take the good news to others who are not the “hometown folks.” And it will not be the last time by doing so that he would confront those who should know better with their own lack of vision and narrow exclusiveness. He will again be rejected by his own people.
Luke is clearly foreshadowing the crucifixion here. But he also has in mind the larger mission of the church in the world. Jesus came to his own, yet they did not accept him (cf. John 1:11-12). But he came not just to his own, but to the whole world. It was precisely because he came to others that his own people did not accept him. They wanted him to themselves, or not at all.
The proclamation of Jesus’ Good News began in Nazareth’s synagogue. But they did not stop the story by rejecting Jesus there. It moved from there throughout Galilee to Jerusalem. And even though they rejected Jesus in Jerusalem, and even succeeded in killing him there, they did not stop the story. It would be played out in Acts, as the apostles and followers of Jesus also suffered rejection at the hands of those who should know better. But they did not stop the Good News. It simply moved on to Judea, to Samaria, and to the farthest reaches of the Earth (Acts 1:7). The Good News that Jesus read about and proclaimed that day in Nazareth, the mission that he defined, was carried out in spite of rejection.
Commentaries
Scripture quotes taken from New American Bible
In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about the light of our faith, to not keep it hidden. A lighted candle has its proper place – not under a basket, but in the lamp stand where it can provide light to the room, so too our faith has a place in the world, not hidden away, but on display for all to see.
An interesting element of this parable is the translation.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?” (Mark 4:21)
Yesterday we looked at details of some verses about the perils of being a “hometown prophet.” In today’s exploration of this coming Sunday gospel, we will continue the “deep dive” of those perils when the prophet’s attention is not focused on just Nazareth, but it is even available to people outside of Israel.
25 Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. 26 It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
Given its balmy weather, Florida holds the first of the state fairs on the circuit of vendors who make their living on the circuit. One of the staples of state fairs is the strange food offerings. Being first up, the FLorida State fair becomes the “test kitchen” for food offerings at the event. Sharon Kennedy Wynne of The Tampa Bay Times published the lineup of this year’s offerings. Warning: if you are a nutritionist or an advocate for healthy eating, you might want to stop reading lest some internal circuit overloads. Read at your own risk. Continue reading
Persistence Generosity
In the traditional understanding of the parable of “The Sower and Seed,” the focus is often on the soil as a description of our hearts, of our openness to the word of God being sown into our lives. The soil/heart is described as a well-trod path, rocky ground, a bramble of thorns, or rich fertile soil. There is some insight there to be sure, but it does not necessarily give insight into a remedy. Some have described it as “the soil under your feet”. All one must do is to look down, assess the conditions where you stand in life, and move. Move to the rich fertile soil – and yes, along the way you will have to deal with birds, the weeds and the scorching sun.
At least two things stand out for me about the Sower: generosity and persistence. Continue reading
This morning I received a very nice note from one of this blog’s readers. She was kind enough to send along a note: “My home town is the beautiful City of Durham, World Heritage Site, also known as the Land of the Prince Bishops and final resting places of St. Bede and St. Cuthbert…..both very popular names for Catholic Churches and schools in the area. Thought this might be of interest.” Included was a link to an article about the Prince Bishops of Durham. Continue reading
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