Deacon Michael's Homily for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time - January 29-30, 2022

Here's my homily for 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, continuing to discuss Jesus public ministry debut in his hometown of Nazareth, and how we might help fulfilll his "prophecy" in our time.  

You can find the readings on which this homily is based linked HERE

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Last week Father George opened his homily with a joke about the Vatican at the Second Coming of Christ

… and the need for folks there to look busy when He returns.

This morning I want to pick up on that with another take from the Vatican.

As you may know, bishops from around the world make visits to the Vatican every five years to meet with the Pope and report on what's happening and their local dioceses.

Back in 1959, a visiting bishop from California was impressed by the large number of people that worked at the Vatican.

During his meeting with then Pope John the 23rd, the bishop noted this and asked the Holy Father how many people worked at the Vatican. 

The Pope smiled, probably a bit slyly, and responded “about half”.

So the other half would need to get busier just as Father suggested last week.

“Just what” to be busy about, and it challenges, is where the story picks up today.

Today's Gospel reading continues just where last week’s left off

…in Nazareth, where Jeus reads that famous passage from Isaiah.

…declaring it fulfilled as they hear it from his lips

…the one anointed to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed.

Here he speaks of himself as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Hebrew Scripture

…and to declare just what his work will be about.

Scripture scholars and interpreters have looked at these words of Christ in a couple of ways.   

Both ways are clear that he came to offer good news for the poor, recovery of sight, release from captivity and oppression

…but they have different angles on just who the poor, blind, oppressed and captives actually are.

One perspective has this passage operating on a societal level.

…those who were economically poor, physically blind, actually captive and oppressed in the physical, geographic, social and political senses. 

The response here is social change to achieve greater levels of societal justice. 

Another, sees the passage on a personal level, with the poor being those who lacked union with God, the blind as those who hadn’t seen or wouldn’t see the light come into the world, the captives and oppressed as those still in bondage to sin.

The response here is personal renewal and repentance to achieve greater holiness.

Taken as a whole Luke’s Gospel strongly emphasizes, the Lord’s special concern for the economically poor, the socially downtrodden, the afflicted, the forgotten, the neglected. 

But it’s pretty clear that today’s passage, read in full context, has a strong sense of that second more personal take on Isaiah’s words.

Jesus is directly challenging the spiritual poverty, blindness, captivity and oppression that would not allow the hometown crowd them to see Jesus for who he is

…contrasting the crowd's faithlessness and blindness to the faith and vision of the poor widow of Zarephath and the cured foreign leper Naaman the Syrian.      

There is a tendency for many Christians to see these two interpretations, the social and the personal, as competing or opposed to each other.

Advocates of the church's social doctrine and teachings cite this passage as foundational

…and tend to suspect an emphasis on the personal implications as undermining the church's social teaching.

In contrast many who focus heavily on the personal implications of this passage tend to be suspicious of those citing it in support of the church's social doctrine exclusively

…which they often see as proof-testing the Gospel to support social or political policies that they happen to disagree with.

They're both missing an essential point. 

The key to understanding just how is in today’s second reading, Paul’s great hymn to love.

Here Paul reminds us that whatever we do, it will not ultimately succeed unless we do it for, in and with love.

Without love, prophecy, and learning and all that flows from them will be for nothing.

The foundation of the church's social teaching is grounded not so much in Isaiah's prophecy as it is in Christian love.

Justice is an extension of love, love made active in the pursuit of the good of another for their sake, and not our own, even at cost to ourselves. 

And we as Christians are called to love what God loves. 

The Gospels remind us of the Lord’s powerful love for the poor and those trodden down, disabled and neglected

…and so should we.

…and we should see this love made real by seeing that justice is done for them.

But we are not likely to love this way if we remain among the spiritually impoverished by lacking union with God, blind to the light that has come into the world, remaining captive and oppressed by bondage to sin and selfishness. 

If we are stuck there, we need to work on that, so we are free to love as God loves …in  the fullness of all its personal and social implications.

There is plenty here for us to be busy about

…making sure, like that other half in the Vatican

…we are busy doing the right things when the Lord comes for an accounting.