Daily Gospel Reflection

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August 31, 2020

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Lk 4:16-30
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Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”

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 sky 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.

Reflection

Alexander Koleno ’02
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I wonder what Jesus was hoping for when he preached at the synagogue in his hometown. Wouldn’t it have been nice if the people who saw him grow up were the first ones to recognize his true mission and identity as the Messiah? “We always knew there was something special about Joseph’s boy!” they would say. They would laugh and congratulate him and feel very special for their ability to say, “I knew him when…”

It didn’t play out that way. Instead, their reaction is a foreshadowing of the end of Jesus’ ministry: the people who were once close to him abandon him and the crowd seeks to kill him. Jesus still had quite a bit of work to do in his public ministry, so the crowd does not get their way in this gospel passage. Jesus slips through them, eluding their intention to kill him. The only miracle that he shows his hometown is his miraculous ability to escape their murderous rage.

I think we all have a similar relationship to the places we came from and the people we knew from those places. In a sense, we long to be recognized for who we really are by those people because those places and experiences mean so much to us. But it is precisely because those people knew us so well for so long that they can only see who we were and not who we have become.

This reading reminds me that I have come from God and I will return to God. If others do not see me for who I really am, and even if I myself do not, God does.

Prayer

Rev. Steve Gibson, C.S.C.

Lord, how quickly the people would change their opinion of you. Sometimes you were the hottest thing in town; the next day you were despised and threatened with your life. Regardless of the situation, you remained constant in your mission and clung to your Father’s faithfulness. Please give us the grace to live with purpose and to believe in your presence, even when loneliness may seem our only companion. Amen.

Saint of the Day

St. Raymond Nonnatus

St. Raymond only barely survived his own birth, yet went on to lead many, even his captors, to new life in Christ.

Raymond was born in 1204 in Spain, though his mother died while in labor, which prompted his delivery by Caesarian operation. This is the origin of his surname, “Nonnatus,” which means “not born.”

His father planned for Raymond to join the royal court, but he felt called to religious life. His father then assigned him the task of overseeing one of the family farms. Raymond spent all of his time in prayer and in conversation with the shepherds and hired hands, so his father gave up on his plans.

Raymond became a priest and spent all he had to ransom Christians captured by Muslims. When he ran out of money, he gave his own life for another Christian and was sentenced to die. His captors realized that he would be worth more if he could bring a ransom, so he was imprisoned and tortured, but succeeded at converting some of his guards. To keep him from converting others, his captors bored holes through his lips and locked his mouth shut with a padlock.

He was eventually ransomed and lived the rest of his life as a poor monk; he died in 1240. Because of the circumstances of his birth, he is patron of expectant mothers. His relics rest in the Basilica.

St. Raymond Nonnatus, patron saint of expecting mothers, pray for us!


Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Raymond Nonnatus is in the public domain. Last accessed March 27, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.