2024-03-04 06:19:54
There is a common denominator in the Gospel in the two examples that Jesus gives to the people of his town. In both cases it refers to cases of Old Testament healings in which the healed were people who did not belong to the people of Israel. In other words: that they did not belong to the chosen people. They were foreigners, pagans, believers in other religions or other gods.
It has made me think of some people I have met, good Catholics, even frequent Mass attendants, who have told me very seriously that the charitable works of Catholics should be directed preferably to Catholics in need and leave aside others, unbelievers, muslims, etc. Because “first we have to take care of our own.”
In the Gospel we see that those who listened to Jesus became angry. They became furious and wanted to kill Jesus by pushing him down the ravine where his town stood. It gives the impression that they felt they were owners of salvation. They were the chosen people. In reality, they felt they were owners of God himself. They knew how God should act. And God might not act except by saving the people from him. The rest were condemned people. Either they converted to Judaism or there was no future for them.
But the God that Jesus tells us regarding in the Gospel is not like that. This is not even the God spoken of in the Old Testament, the God of the prophets. God’s love is universal and no one escapes from his hand, from his mercy, from his mercy. We are all his sons and daughters. The workmanship of his hands. Dear and loved. Participation in the love and mercy of God is not acquired by baptism. Nor is it preserved based on rosaries or masses or Easter observances. If we understand it this way, we end up imagining a God as small as our minds.
The God of Jesus is bigger than our minds. And his love is, we must repeat it and repeat it to ourselves, universal and unconditional. Therefore, it is only when Christians are capable of loving everyone, without exceptions of any kind, that we announce the God of Jesus and bear witness to him.
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#Gospel #Reflection #Homily #Monday #March
