Mother Church celebrates Sunday, January 30, 2022 as the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “Save us, Lord our God, and gather us together from the nations, that we may proclaim your holy name and glory in your praise. Amen.”
The first reading (Jeremiah 1:4-5. 17-19) talks about the call of the prophet Jeremiah. In each important prophetic book of the Old Testament, an account is always given of the call of the prophet. Here Jeremiah is chosen from his mother’s womb and given his mission. He is to singlehandedly oppose the rulers of Judah, who have set themselves on a course of national and religious ruin. Very much against his will, Jeremiah prophesies the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, which was for the Jewish people the inviolable seat of God’s presence among them. He was in this sense the forerunner of Christ, who also warned his people of the imminent destruction of the temple, a warning that came true less than a century after his death.
In the second reading (1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13), Saint Paul reflects on the theme of charity. This passage is often referred to as the “hymn of charity” and is one of the most beautiful passages in Saint Paul’s Letters. Being faced with the community of Corinth, which was torn by rivalries, Saint Paul tells them that they are Christ’s body, bound in unity by his Spirit of love. He tells them that love is the only gift that will count at the end of time.
In the Gospel (Luke 4:12-30), the evangelist continues the gospel message of last Sunday where Jesus went to his home town of Nazareth and preached in the Synagogue, telling his townspeople that the prophet’s passage he read was being fulfilled in their presence. The fact that Jesus is performing miracles elsewhere outside his town enrages his townspeople, who want to be the only ones to benefit from his largesse. Where Jesus preaches a gospel of inclusiveness, with God being for everyone, his townspeople want God for themselves alone. Jesus, however, shows them that God also works outside the realms of his chosen people. In the course of this Mass, let us pray for the grace of charity so that we may discover Christ in our neighbors as we share the joy of love with them.
First Reading: 1:4-5. 17.19.
In the days of Josiah, the word of the Lord was addressed to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you; I have appointed you as prophet to the nations. So now brace yourself for action. Stand up and tell them all I command you. Do not be dismayed at their presence, or in their presence I will make you dismayed. I, for my part, today will make you into a fortified city, a pillar of iron, and a wall of bronze to confront all this land: the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests and the country people. They will fight against you but shall not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you – it is the Lord who speaks.
Comment
The prophet Jeremiah is the second of the Major Prophets of the Bible, the first being Isaiah, the third Ezekiel and the fourth Daniel. Jeremiah lived in the last decades of the kingdom of Judah – a very important period, since it saw the collapse of the Assyrian empire, the rebirth of the Babylonian empire and the complete disappearance of the kingdom of Judah with the deportation of its leading families to Babylon.
The African Bible tells me that Jeremiah lived in Judah when the forces of King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 587 BC and deported its inhabitants to Babylon. Jeremiah was well placed to see all these events and was familiar with the conditions in Judah after the deportation. He was born into a priestly family and received his prophetic mission from God round about the year 626 BC, while still a young man. During his long ministry that lasted over forty years, Jeremiah never tired of reminding his people of their covenant obligations and warning the incompetent leaders that their infidelity would bring down God’s anger and punishment on the whole land. Even though he was a peaceful man, Jeremiah was constantly in conflict with his people, kings, priests and false prophets, even suffering imprisonment in the process, but he was not afraid because he knew that he was only doing God’s work.
His warning of impending doom for Judah went largely unheeded until King Nebuchadnezzar’s forces came storming into Jerusalem in 587 BC. They conquered the Holy City and exiled most of its population to Babylon. Some Church historians believe that Jeremiah stayed back in Jerusalem for a while before being taken to Egypt by force by some Jews, who fled after the assassination of the king the Babylonians had put in place. This tradition holds that Jeremiah was eventually assassinated by his fellow Jews and is therefore thought to be buried on the African continent.
The passage of our meditation is from the first chapter of Jeremiah and it mainly represents God’s call to the prophet. He was called to be a prophet from his mother’s womb. He received the divine call to be a seer during the reign of king Josiah (640-609 BC). He had the uncomfortable role of announcing God’s impending punishment on his people, if they did not repent from their sinful ways. The kings, the priests, the false prophets and the population in general do not want to listen to him and even physically harassed him. Fewer prophets in the Bible suffered as much persecution as Jeremiah. He preached in the temple in Jerusalem, denouncing the corrupt forms of worship that the priests were practicing and for this, he was imprisoned. He, however, continued his prophetic work through his secretary, Baruch. He was finally forced into exile in Egypt, where he died.
What does this reading tell me as a Christians living in Cameroon today? It tells me that if Jeremiah were to live in Cameroon today, he would still be as persecuted as he was in his day. Some courageous bishops and ministers of other denominations, who have spoken out against the ills plaguing our country, particularly corruption and embezzlement of public funds, have also been persecuted. Our country stands in dire need of true leaders, like the prophet Jeremiah, both in civil society and in the Church, who love and serve the people God has entrusted to their care. It is not rare either for Church leaders themselves to mistake Church coffers for their own private funds. Let us pray, in the course of this Mass, that God should raise from among our people leaders in church and in civil society who are truly out to serve our people and not wait for our people to serve them, as it is largely the case today. We make our supplication through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Second Reading: 1 Cor 12:13-13:13
Be ambitious for the higher gifts. And I am going to show you a way that is better than any of them. If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever. Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end. But if there are gifts of prophecy, the time will come when they must fail; or the gift of languages, it will not continue forever; and knowledge – for this, too, the time will come when it must fail. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect; but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will disappear. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and think like a child, and argue like a child, but now I am a man, all childish ways are put behind me. Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known. In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.
Comment
Chapter 13 of First Corinthians is definitely one of the most beautiful passages from Saint Paul’s letters. It is a wonderful hymn that presents charity in all its splendor. Charity results from love which is to be found in the new order of things established by Christ. It comes from the love of God for us, a love so strong that God sacrificed his Son, Jesus Christ for us (Jn 3:16). Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Christian can respond to this love by discovering God in his neighbor. He discovers that we are all children of the one Father and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
In this ‘song of love’, Saint Paul is very clear as to what true love is. A Christian without love is a dead Christian. Love should be expressed in concrete acts of charity. Charity is such a wonderful gift that without it all other gifts make no sense. Saint Paul makes this clearer by referring to those gifts which appear to be most exceptional – the gift of tongues; knowledge and heroic actions. But these talents are not the most important thing, according to Saint Paul. To him, some people may preach the Gospel with eloquence, some may have gifts of tongue, some may have the gifts of prophecy or of healing and performing other miracles. However, none of these gifts surpasses love.
Christian love is not selfish because it is always patient and kind and never jealous. It is never rude, and never takes offence unnecessarily. True Christian love is ready to ask for excuse when the other party is hurt; it is ready to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. The Holy Spirit plays an important role in love as it moves us to it. When we love someone God is at work in us, enabling us to love. Without love, we will not be able to make any meaningful contribution to our society.
What lesson do we learn from this reading that can enhance our Christian lives here in Douala? The qualities of love Saint Paul gives in this reading also apply to us, be it in our family or in our Christian community. What is lacking in many of our families today is love, which bonds us together. We may have all the wealth in the world but if we have no love, or if we have no one to love, or no one to love us, our lives remain empty. Love stands high above money, wealth, material goods, or even health.
Let us pray with Saint Thomas Aquinas to be people of charity: “Grant, Lord, that I may gladly share what I have with the needy; humbly ask for what I need from him who has, sincerely admit the evil I have done, calmly bear the evil I suffer, not envy my neighbor for his blessings, and thank you unceasingly whenever you hear my prayer. Amen.”
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord: No one can come to the Father except through me. Alleluia.”
Gospel: Luke 4: 21-30.
Jesus began to speak in the synagogue, “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.” And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, “This is Joseph’s son, surely?” But he replied, “No doubt you will quote me the saying, ‘Physician, heal yourself’ and tell me, ‘We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.’” And he went on, “I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country. There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.” When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.
Comment
In today’s Gospel we see how Jesus, after preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth, is rejected by his own townspeople. Some of them marvel at the gracious words that come out of his mouth, while others are concerned mainly about his background: he is a mere carpenter. They feel hurt that Jesus does not perform miracles in his own town as he does elsewhere. They presume they have a special entitlement and so they demand that he perform miracles to satisfy their vanity, not to change their hearts. Given their lack of faith, Jesus performs no miracle. He works no miracle where there is such an obvious lack of faith. Later on when he meets Herod and the latter demands a miracle of him, he will not perform any (Lk 23: 7-11).
He tells them that his missions is addressed to the whole world, not only to them, his fellow Jews, by using two examples from the Old Testament, which show that one needs to be well disposed before miracles can lead to faith. One is Elijah’s miracle at the home of a Sidonian woman (1 Kings 17:9) and the second is Elisha’s curing of Naaman, the Syrian when he could have cured many of the lepers that lived in Israel (2 Kings 5: 14). By raising the case of the widow and the leper, who are generally rejected by society, Christ clearly tells them that God welcomes them all.
Christ is preaching the inclusive nature of our faith. Our God is not a God of any one people, not even his chosen people; he is a God of all humanity. He welcomes everyone who repents his sins and comes to him. He is the father in the story of the prodigal son, who welcomes back with open arms a son who goes astray but realizing his error, comes running back to his father for forgiveness (Lk 15: 11-32). Christ’s attitude hurts his people who then try to kill him. But since his hour has not yet come, he withdraws unhurt from the crowd. On other occasions too during his public ministry, people will try unsuccessfully to kill him but God has decreed that he will die on the cross when his hour comes (John 18:32).
Our God is an inclusive God. He rejects no one. We are therefore challenged to seek out and bring back to the fold all those brothers and sisters of our who, for one reason or other, have back-slided in their faith, or those who are not yet in communion with our faith. Christ reaches out to everyone, irrespective of social class, tribe, ethnicity, or color of the skin. We too should imitate him and reach out to our brothers and sisters whose faith has grown lukewarm, or those who have not yet heard the Word. Let’s be missionaries to them through acts of kindness and patience. Through our exemplary lifestyle, we can show them the way back to Church.
As we take Christ’s message of salvation to the world, let us be ready to be persecuted and rejected as Christ is by his people, or as the prophet Jeremiah was, as we heard in the first reading of this day. Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to guide us and protect us as we proclaim Christ’s word of salvation to the world. Amen.
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