Memorial of St. John Vianney, Priest

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s gospel, Jesus experiences rejection by the people of his own hometown. His fellow villagers “took offense at him” because he was too well known to them and they found it difficult to believe that the son of a carpenter could be capable of such wisdom and mighty deeds. St. Matthew concludes the passage with the words “And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.”

Fr. Jacque Philippe asserts in his book Time for God: “Faith is the capacity of believers to act not according to impressions, preconceived ideas, or notions borrowed from other people, but according to what they are told by the Word of God, who cannot lie.” (p. 9). The townspeople of Nazareth acted out of their preconceived ideas of what they thought the Messiah must be like. They pictured him as a majestic king, a warrior who would free Israel from Roman rule, not as the humble son of a common woodworker. Their hearts were hardened because Jesus did not fit the figure of their imagination. In St. Luke’s account of the Rejection at Nazareth, Jesus points directly at one of the most important Old Testament passages that describe the Messiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Is 61:1-2). He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). They still didn’t get it. They couldn’t make the connection between the prophecy and the miracles that took place in their own backyard.

How do we strengthen our faith in Jesus? We spend time with him. We get to know who he really is. We listen to his words—for the Word of God “cannot lie.” Spending time with Jesus each day and hanging upon his every word shatters any preconceived notions of what the Savior might look like. We come to develop a relationship with a real person, not a figment of our imagination. We come to know the One who emptied himself, took the form of a slave, came in human likeness, humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Why? Because he loved us and continues to love us still.

Reflection by Br. Michael Marcotte, OSB