Wednesday, January 7, 2015

1/8/2015 – Thursday after Epiphany – Luke 4:14-22

      It is hard being a prophet in your own land.  It is hard talking about matters of faith with family or friends or neighbors.  It is hard living out our vocation or calling if it defies the expectations that people have for us.  When Jesus came to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth and read from the prophet Isaiah, I am sure a lot of people were shocked and amazed.  It was a radical message he read – of bringing glad tidings to the poor, of setting the oppressed free, of giving sight to the blind, of giving liberty to the captives.  Often we do the opposite of this message that Jesus and the prophets bring. We want the captives to remain behind bars.  We want revenge on those who brings us harm.  We blame the poor for their predicament and tell them to pull themselves out of their poverty.  We domesticate and water down the message we hear in the Gospels so many times.  Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador who was martyred for the faith while celebrating mass by the military forces of his own country, said this: “A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed -- what gospel is that?”  There are those who don’t want the priests or the leaders of our Church talking about the harsh reality of our society, of the social sins that we don’t want to see.  But look at what Jesus did in his day.  He was not afraid to speak out.  He was not afraid of the repercussions. And neither should we be afraid to speak the Good News of the Gospel in its fullest sense.  Our faith is not just about preaching about God’s heavenly kingdom and waiting for what is to be in the end times or in our eternal life with Christ. The Gospel is not just about a God who lives in the heavens - it is about proclaiming the Good News in the here and now. 

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