Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Scripture
You know that I look forward to every trip home to be with my parents. However, in this very traditionalist part of India, there is something I do not look forward to – being the kind of priest that I am. Many of my relatives do not want a jeans-clad, long-haired “hippy priest.” Even when I am at home they expect to see me dressed in my collar, constantly exercising my priestly duties, perhaps, on my knees in prayer. Yet, when I raise some of the social issues that plague our society, like the dowry system or caste system, they think I should just be a priest and not a rebel. My own home town is the most difficult place for me to be a priest. I usually do not worry about these things but I hate for my parents to hear anything negative said about me. I think they hurt for me.
On my last visit, however, I decided to take a different approach. Instead of focusing on the negativity, I decided to focus on my reaction to people’s expectations and criticisms. I began to evaluate my own ability to tolerate criticism. Most of all, I began to focus on my own ability to understand people. In this sense, I understand Jesus’ dilemma in today’s gospel reading as he visited his own home town of Nazareth.
How did Jesus deal with life, people, and negative attitudes that he encountered? How do we deal with people and their attitudes? Today’s readings lead us to pay attention to our capacity not just for toleration, but for love. Yes, that is the question – What is our capacity for love? This question is inspired by today’s second reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.
This supremely poetic passage paints an ideal that few of us can resist. I have deliberately called Paul’s understanding of love an ideal. Just for a moment, I would like you to focus on the crucifix. And as I read the following section from the second reading, focus on whether what is read is absolutely true about Christ on the cross.
“Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
It is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.” (1 Cor 13:4-8)
It seems to me that not one phrase in this poem is untrue about Christ. Christ was love par excellence. Christ’s capacity to love was supreme. Keeping this ideal in mind, I would like us to consider the following three practical implications.
1. I would like you to go home take this 1 Cor 13:4-8 and re-read this passage. But this time replace the word “love” with your name. So, if I were reading it, I would read, Satish is patient, Satish is kind, Satish is not jealous and so on… ending with Satish bears all things, believes, all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Satish never fails. The purpose of this exercise is to become aware of how close or far each of us is from the ideal that Christ presents to us. It is possible for people to make the ideal presented in this passage a spiritual journey in itself.
2. I said earlier that this passage is about our capacity to love. When I look at my own life, I see that my capacity to love depends on who I am talking about. Whereas my capacity to love my family, friends, this parish community is great, my capacity to love those I do not like is extremely limited. The point I am trying to make is that the world Christ as the supreme teacher of love not because he loved his family and friends, but rather, because he loved those that are difficult to love. So the real test of our capacity for love is seen in our ability to love those we do not like. Once again, this in itself could be a life-long spiritual journey.
3. I would think that this passage is a great passage for our parish as it focuses on “Radical Discipleship.” We have defined discipleship as “think like Jesus, talk like Jesus, act like Jesus.” If this is true, then, we can say that the more we increase our capacity for love, the more we become like Christ. It makes sense, then, to see why Paul might say later in the passage, “When I was a child, I used to think like a child….” In other words, the capacity to love, think, talk, act like Christ is a sign of Christian maturity. The higher and greater my capacity to love like Christ the more mature I am as a Christian.
Let me conclude by saying, that it is not just the cross that shows up Christ’s capacity for love but every Eucharist does the same. Each of us finds in the Eucharist, Christ’s love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Here, at this altar, we find Christ’s love that never fails. Let us prepare ourselves for that love.
- Fr. Satish Joseph