March 9, 2015 Monday: 3rd Week of Lent
A Lenten Pilgrimage
March 9, 2015 Monday: 3rd Week of Lent
And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. (Luke 4:24-30)
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So why did our Lord tell the people who had been his neighbors for years that a Prophet is not accepted in his own native place? The people had known him as a member of an ordinary working-man’s family. They considered that they knew him too well as one of their own to view him as God’s chosen representative, as the one who speaks for God, in a word, as a prophet. His comment was not only a voicing of his deeply felt frustration, but a warning that still invites us to reflect on our readiness to take his words to heart and to act upon his words.
God often reveals his will to us in the every day ordinary circumstances of our life. The surface of life often serves as a screen for deeper realities that remain buried within events and remain hidden in the heart of the individual. Our Lord is present yet most hidden in the world we encounter daily. His message and identity are revealed only to those specially chosen and willing to respond from the heart.
In the sacrament of the Eucharist, under the ordinary forms of bread and wine, he remains among us and joins himself to us in a communion that is a pledge of his fidelity and love. May we open our hearts to him with trusting faith and follow him where he leads until we meet him in his glory.
March 9, 2015 Monday: 3rd Week of Lent
And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. (Luke 4:24-30)
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So why did our Lord tell the people who had been his neighbors for years that a Prophet is not accepted in his own native place? The people had known him as a member of an ordinary working-man’s family. They considered that they knew him too well as one of their own to view him as God’s chosen representative, as the one who speaks for God, in a word, as a prophet. His comment was not only a voicing of his deeply felt frustration, but a warning that still invites us to reflect on our readiness to take his words to heart and to act upon his words.
God often reveals his will to us in the every day ordinary circumstances of our life. The surface of life often serves as a screen for deeper realities that remain buried within events and remain hidden in the heart of the individual. Our Lord is present yet most hidden in the world we encounter daily. His message and identity are revealed only to those specially chosen and willing to respond from the heart.
In the sacrament of the Eucharist, under the ordinary forms of bread and wine, he remains among us and joins himself to us in a communion that is a pledge of his fidelity and love. May we open our hearts to him with trusting faith and follow him where he leads until we meet him in his glory.
