Sisters of St. Mary of Namur

January 31, 2010                                    Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19                         1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13                      Luke 4:21-30

Our readings for today offer us a full smorgasbord of messages.  Whatever my mood or frame of mind, I can find something in today's Scripture to parallel it.
                  Am I in one of those blessed moments when I find myself held in the tender arms of a loving God?  I can rejoice in God's words to Jeremiah:  "Before I forms you in the womb I knew you."
If the world is looking dark and I feel  misunderstood, I can find comfort in the fact that Jesus' detractors tried to hurl him off  the hill, but God let him walk through their midst.  Not only that, but history has shown that the detractors were wrong in their judgment.  If I'm feeling let down after the long holiday season, and I need a boost, I can enjoy hearing St. Paul say that "Love is kind, love never fails." (And Valentine's Day is just around the corner.)
                  So, perhaps the challenge today is to not fill my spiritual plate with the neatly arranged morsels that seem most appealing to my appetite of the day.

When I gave these passages from Scripture the freedom to "be alive" rather than to be a reflection of my own reflections on life, what jumped to the forefront for me were the words of Paul,
"... when I became an adult, I put aside childish things." What are the childish things today's readings ask us to put aside?
---the idea that it is glamorous and exciting to be prophetic
---the idea that the real meaning of love can be found in a Hallmark card
---the idea that if I am good and honest everyone will love me.

Today's readings invite us to be grounded in God's immeasurable love for us which began before our birth and will continue for eternity.  They also invite us to recognize that we have been chosen by God to be followers of Jesus--the same Jesus who dared to tell the people of Nazareth that the God of Israel tenderly loved a nameless widow from the ill-reputed land of Sidon, and healed a slave-owning Syrian leper, while many Israelite lepers were left in their misery.  Jesus could have safely shared that conviction with the people of Sidon and Syria, but he spoke it to the people of Nazareth.

The Word today challenges us to speak the truth of God's passionate, all-embracing love, that has no boundaries--  not of race, or of creed, or of sexual preference; not of intelligence, or of wealth, or of popularity.  We are called to speak that truth especially in the places where it will not find a warm welcome--even if that place happens to be our own heart.

                      -Sister Elizabeth Buchala