Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalm: Sunday 4

Reading 1
Jer 1:4-5, 17-19

The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

But do you gird your loins;
stand up and tell them
all that I command you.
Be not crushed on their account,
as though I would leave you crushed before them;
for it is I this day
who have made you a fortified city,
a pillar of iron, a wall of brass,
against the whole land:
against Judah’s kings and princes,
against its priests and people.
They will fight against you but not prevail over you,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15-17

R. (cf. 15ab) I will sing of your salvation.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me, and deliver me;
incline your ear to me, and save me.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
Be my rock of refuge,
a stronghold to give me safety,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
For you are my hope, O Lord;

my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth;
from my mother’s womb you are my strength.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
My mouth shall declare your justice,
day by day your salvation.
O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.
R. I will sing of your salvation.

Reading II
1 Cor 12:31—13:13 or 13:4-13

Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.
But I shall show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in human and angelic tongues,
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy,
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
It is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

or

Brothers and sisters:
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.
If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;

then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

Gospel
Lk 4:21-30

Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying:
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They also asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”
He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb,
‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say,
‘Do here in your native place
the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’”
And he said, “Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.

A man wrote into Reader's Digest with an embarrassing story about his former boss. This gentleman was just stepping out of the shower one evening when his wife called and asked him to run down to the basement and turn off the iron she had accidentally left on. Without bothering to grab a towel or robe, the man headed down to the basement. Just as he reached the bottom stair, the lights came on and a dozen friends and colleagues jumped out and shouted, “Surprise!" His wife had planned a secret party for the man's 40th birthday.

Not all surprises are good ones, at least at first glance. Jesus had an uncanny ability to take people by surprise--and they weren't always pleased about it. Take, for instance, the surprise Jesus sprung on the Nazarene congregation in our Bible passage for today. Jesus had returned to his hometown in Nazareth. That Sabbath day, he went to the synagogue, as any observant Jew would. Jesus was handed a scroll from the book of Isaiah and asked to preach on it. He went straight to Isaiah 61, a Messianic passage of great importance to the Hebrew people, and read these words:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

And then, when Jesus was sure he had everyone's attention, he closed the scroll, sat down, and announced very simply, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

SURPRISE! Say that again? The prophet Isaiah had been inspired to write those words more than 700 years earlier. For seven centuries, preachers and teachers of the holy word had preached on a soon-coming Messiah who would turn the world's systems upside-down. He would lift up the hurting, the oppressed, and the blind. The Hebrew people knew only too well what it was to suffer, to be held captive. They had waited hundreds of years for the fulfillment of this prophecy, and were prepared to wait hundreds more if necessary. And now a poor, no-name carpenter claims to be that Messiah who would "proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." How would you react if you were in their shoes? Is it any wonder that we discover that the men of the synagogue tried to kill Jesus? Of course, he got away. But we can't blame the Nazarene congregation for their reaction.

"The Gospel is neither a discussion nor a debate. It is an announcement!" And that's exactly how Jesus treated it. The Gospel is God’s Word.

He didn't explain, argue, or pontificate. He just announced this mind-blowing piece of information and let the worshipers make up their own minds. Still today, if we take this passage seriously, it has the same potential to blow our minds too. Jesus' announcement tells us an important thing about God.

OUR GOD IS A GOD OF HOPE. Jesus says: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Wherever Jesus went, he brought hope. He brought hope to the leper, exiled from his home and his community. He brought hope to the paralyzed man who was unable to care for his family. To people who felt worthless, or lost, or broken, or rejected, or beyond saving, Jesus brought the message that God loved them--that they had a purpose in life. Even in Jesus' last moments, when he was dying in agony on the cross, he offered the hope of eternal salvation to the thief dying beside him. This was Jesus' first act in life and his last act before death--the giving of hope.

We are about to celebrate the Eucharist at the altar of hope. Jesus knows of our suffering, our hurts, and the times when others hurt us, or we hurt someone else. He made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us and we are about to commemorate his sacrifice. We can participate in the hope that he provides. We must ask ourselves, “do we have hope in our lives?”

In the ancient classic, titled Inferno, by Dante, the author imagines that the entrance to Hell is marked by a sign, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Dante can't be far off the mark. Where God is, there is hope; where God is absent, there is no hope. That was the message Jesus came to share with us. Share in the hope that Jesus offers us.