THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Monday of the Third Week of Lent, 2022

2Kgs 5:1-15b

Ps 42

Luke 4:24-30

No prophet is accepted…

It is said in today’s gospel reading (Lk 4:24-30), that in response to Jesus’ preaching in Nazareth ‘everyone in the synagogue was enraged’. 

What was it that enraged people so much? Jesus had the nerve to suggest that God was as concerned with the enemies of Israel as with the people of Israel. Jesus identifies himself with Elijah when he was sent to minister to a widow of a town near Sidon in Phoenicia and with Elisha when he ministered to a commander in the Syrian army. The Phoenicians and the Syrians were perceived by the people of Israel as enemies because of the past history of the relationship between them and Israel. It can be very dangerous to speak well of enemies, especially in time of war. The Russian leadership today would certainly not tolerate people in Russia speaking well of the people of Ukraine or suggesting that they have right on their side.

The great anger that Jesus generated has been replicated all through history by those who have tried to show that life is more complex, less black and white, than we may think. Jesus was revealing to the people of Nazareth that God was not a national God, fighting on the side of Israel against everyone else. Rather, the heart of God embraced all humanity, and he was as concerned for widows of Phoenicia as for widows in Israel and for lepers of Syria as for lepers in Israel. God sent his Son to show the length and breadth and depth and height of God’s love, a love that surpasses knowledge, in the language of Saint Paul.

It is very tempting to make God in our own image, our own personal image or our own image as a nation. Jesus reveals a God who has no favourites. He cares for the suffering and broken of the world, regardless of where they live or what their nationality. Jesus has sent the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, into our lives, so that we may be empowered to love others with the all-inclusive, non-discriminatory, love of God that Jesus revealed to the full by his teaching, his life, his death and resurrection.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, teach me to love your ways that I may be quick to renounce sin and wilfulness in my life. Make me whole and clean again that I may delight to do your will. Amen

+Remain blessed