Overview:

Monday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Monday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

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. (Lk 4: 23-28)

Find today’s readings here.

Christ enters a synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth and proclaims the reading from the prophet Isaiah: God has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind.

He sits down and says, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 

The people listening “spoke highly of him.” As Luke says, “They were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” They said in astonishment, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

And in response to this praise and awe, Jesus immediately puts them back on their heels. “Surely you will quote me this proverb,” he says, “‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’”

And then Jesus points out that, during a three-and-a-half-year famine in Israel, it was not an Israelite who received a miracle from the prophet Elijah, it was a widow from Sidon! And while there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet, which leper did God choose to cleanse? Namaan the Syrian.

And the crowd at the synagogue, Luke says, becomes, “filled with fury.”

Why did Christ seem to willfully needle his audience, elicit their rage in this moment of good will? Why say something that was guaranteed to infuriate them when he had just impressed them? God saves other people, he is telling them, not just you!

There is a method to his madness. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the savior of humankind, the Lord of all that is, simply doesn’t have time to waste. He doesn’t know how to mince words. We all know what everyone is thinking, folks, so let’s get it right out in the open. 

He reads the hearts of his hometown synagogue congregation and confronts them with the truth about how they resist recognizing God at work beyond the borders of Israel. He points out that God heals and saves foreigners just as he does the Israelites. In doing so, he exposes a lack of charity on behalf of his listeners—one that insists that God doesn’t bless other people, only us.

Luke Timothy Johnson points out in his New Testament commentary Sacra Pagina that this moment in the synagogue at Nazareth is the first time in the narrative that any of the Jewish characters, as distinct from the Gospel’s reader, are told that Jesus’ saving mission extends to all nations, saying, “It is this veiled intimation that the prophet would be for all and not just for them…that arouses the neighbors’ wrath….”

It is not until such a thought is exposed, brought out from the recesses of the mind, given air and the light of day, that it can be dealt with—be discovered as true and good, or blatantly and sadly false. 

Jesus is trying to tell his neighbors in Nazareth that their God is far more expansive than they think; that his love and mercy covers everyone, not just a select few. Ultimately, knowing this will serve everyone: Understanding how expansive God’s mercy is can create in us ever more expansive and merciful hearts. 

Joe Hoover, S.J., is America’s poetry editor and producer of a new film, “The Allegory.”