4th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle C)
Readings:
Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
Psalm 71:1-6, 15-17
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Luke 4:21-30
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: God's Prophet to the Nations
In the First Reading, God tells Jeremiah that He chose him for
his prophetic mission as a "prophet to the nations" before he was born (Jer 1:1).
God also warns Jeremiah that he will face opposition from his countrymen
and women but then assures His prophet that He will protect him from his enemies.
Jeremiah's mission was to condemn the unfaithful covenant people of the
Southern Kingdom of Judah in the 6th-century BC. The Gentile nations
who were Judah's neighbors would learn about Jeremiah's prophecies of Yahweh's
judgment on the apostate people of the Kingdom of Judah. They would hear about their
failure to give God genuine worship, their failure in faithfulness to His
covenant. But those Gentile nations would also witness the miraculous
fulfillment of Jeremiah's promise that God would return His people to their homeland
in an exodus out of Babylon after seventy years of atonement for their sins,
proving that Yahweh controlled the destinies of people and nations.
The Responsorial Psalm contains the kind of petition the prophet Jeremiah might have made during the suffering he endured at the hands of those who opposed his prophetic message. It begins with the psalmist's plea for God to hear his prayer and rescue him from his enemies. He professes that God has been his protector since he was a child, and he relies on the strength of God, his rock and stronghold, who protects him from the bad intentions of evil men. The psalmist has confidence in the Lord to hear his prayer and grant his petition, and he ends his prayer by declaring that he will continue to proclaim the "wondrous deeds" of the Lord.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul urges the Christian community at Corinth to put a higher value on the spiritual gifts that contribute to the growth and mission of the Church, especially the works of charity (love in action), the gift that builds up the Body of Christ. Paul writes that love is the supreme Christian virtue because it projects the love of Christ beyond this material world and into the age to come. Love has eternal value and is the reason why Christians will "know fully" and be "fully known" by God when they enter the heavenly reality. Faith and hope will serve their purpose to be replaced by fulfillment when we pass from this world into the eternity of the next when only eschatological love will remain forever with us in the heavenly Kingdom.
The First Reading is a prelude to our Gospel Reading in which Jesus, like Jeremiah, was consecrated in the womb and sent as a "prophet to the nations" (see Lk 1:31-33; 2:30-32). And Jesus, like Jeremiah, faced opposition to His message from His countrymen and women, including those in His hometown, when He preached in the Nazareth Synagogue. But also like Jeremiah, God the Father protected Him because He had ordained Jesus's divine mission and declared His pleasure in God the Son as His messenger of salvation to Israel and the other nations (Mk 1:11; Lk 2:29-32).
However, Jesus was more than a prophet in the tradition of Jeremiah or Elijah and Elisha. Jesus is God's promised supreme prophet (Dt 18:18-19), fulfilling the promises of all the prophets who came before Him and prefiguring His Church's prophetic ministry. As members of the Body of Christ, Jesus's Kingdom of the Church, we must fulfill her role as Christ's prophet to every succeeding generation in every nation. We must also be willing, like Jeremiah and God's other prophets, to experience the adverse reactions of contemporary society in fulfilling that mission.
As many different parts of the Body of Christ, we must be inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit in genuine love as we continue to bear witness to Christ in words and deeds. We must continually pray that God will open the hearts and minds of those who resist opening themselves to the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must also pray that the words we sing in today's Psalm will be ours as the Church continues to fulfill its role as God's prophet to every nation in every generation as each of us proclaims: "My mouth shall declare your justice, day by day your salvation."
The First Reading Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19 ~ The Call of the
Prophet Jeremiah
4 The word of the LORD [Yahweh] came to me thus:
5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were
born, I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you. [...] 17 But do you gird your loins; and stand up and
tell them all that I command you. Be not crushed on their account, as though I
would leave you crushed before them; 18 for
it is I this day who have made you a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall
of brass, against the whole land: against Judah's kings and princes, against
its priests and people. They will fight against you, but not prevail over you,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD [Yahweh]
Jeremiah's ministry covered about forty years from c. 627 BC to 587/6 BC. In today's passage, Jeremiah writes about God's plan concerning his prophetic call that came before his conception in his mother's womb.
Yahweh told Jeremiah: 5 Before
I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born, I dedicated you, a prophet
to the nations I appointed you.
Interestingly, his prophetic mission was not limited to his
people in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, at that time the remaining remnant of
the Kingdom of Israel. The Assyrians took the last of the ten tribes of the
Northern Kingdom of Israel captive and exiled them into Assyrian lands a
century earlier, in 722 BC. The two tribes of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and
Benjamin were all that remained. The Lord also told Jeremiah that his prophetic
ministry would reach the Gentile nations.
In verses 17-19, God warned his prophet that he would face opposition but promised to protect him from his enemies. Jeremiah's mission was to condemn an unfaithful covenant people and tell them not to resist God's divine judgment when their enemies, the Babylonians, conquered and exiled them from their land. The Kingdom of Judah's Gentile neighbors would witness the fulfillment of the prophecies of God's judgment on an apostate people who failed in their faithfulness to His covenant and to give Yahweh genuine worship. But those Gentile nations would also witness the miraculous fulfillment of Jeremiah's promise that God would return His people to their homeland in an exodus out of Babylon after seventy years of atonement for their sins.
Jeremiah's mission as "prophet to the nations" prefigures Jesus's prophetic ministry. Like Jeremiah, God the Father sent Jesus to His covenant people of Judah. And like Jeremiah, Jesus faced opposition from the civil rulers, the religious leaders, and many of His countrymen and women. Jesus came as the Davidic Messiah to gather in the "lost sheep" of the House of Israel (Mt 10:6; 15:24; 18:11; Lk 15:6) by redeeming the "faithful remnant of Israel" still loyal to Yahweh. He would transform them into the new Israel of the universal Church that would carry His Gospel message of salvation to all nations, even "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8; CCC 877)
Responsorial Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17 ~ Proclaiming the
Lord's Salvation
The response is: "I will sing of your salvation."
1 In you, O LORD, I
take refuge; let me never be put to shame. 2
In your justice rescue me, and deliver me; incline your ear to me, and
save me.
Response:
3 Be my rock of
refuge, a stronghold to give me safety, for you are my rock and my fortress. 4 O my God, rescue me from the hand of the
wicked.
Response:
5 For you are my
hope, O Lord; my trust, O God, from my youth. 6 On you I depend from birth; from my mother's womb, you are my
strength.
Response:
15 My mouth shall
declare your justice, day by day your salvation. [...] 17 O God, you have taught me from my youth, and
till the present, I proclaim your wondrous deeds.
Response:
Today's psalm contains the kind of prayer the prophet Jeremiah might have made during the suffering he endured at the hands of those who opposed his prophetic message. It begins with the psalmist's appeal for God to hear his petition and rescue him. The psalmist professes that God has been his protector since he was a child and declares that he relies on the strength of God, his stronghold, rock, and fortress. When the wicked attack him, he needs God's protection from the bad intentions of evil men (verses 1-4). Then again, in verse 5, the psalmist mentions the hope he has in God's willingness to protect him and of his intimate relationship with God since his childhood and youth.
In verses 15 and 17, the psalmist has confidence in the Lord to hear his prayer and grant his petition, which leads him to praise God for His divine teaching, justice, and salvation. The psalmist demonstrates his confidence in God by declaring that he will continue to proclaim the "wondrous deeds" of the Lord.
The psalmist's faith and trust in God is a message for those of us on this side of salvation history. When the struggles in life beat you down, raise your eyes to Heaven, and pray to the Lord God who loves you and will give you the strength to endure your sufferings on your journey to eternal salvation.
The Second Reading 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 ~ The
Greatest of These is Love
12:31 Strive eagerly
for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent
way. 13:1 If I speak in human and
angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing
cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of
prophecy, and comprehend all the mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all
faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I hand
my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. 5 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, 6 it does not rejoice
over wrong-doing but rejoices with the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. 8 Love never
fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues,
they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. 9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish
things. 12 At present, we see
indistinctly as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present, I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 13 So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of
these is love.
In 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, some Christians in the church at Corinth seem to have received spiritual gifts that they are flaunting to the point of gaining undue recognition, causing tensions in the community. St. Paul disapproved because such behavior did not contribute to the building up of the Body of Christ that is the Church. Instead, St. Paul urged the Christian community at Corinth to put a higher value on the spiritual gifts that contribute to the growth and mission of the Church. Then in verse 31b, he writes that he will give them more direction concerning works of charity (love in action) that is the more excellent gift for building up the Body of Christ.
In the following passage (13:1-13), St. Paul preaches a moving hymn to charity/love, one of the most beautiful passages in St. Paul's epistles. He begins by singing the praises of love as seen from three points of view:
Paul teaches that charity is the application of love in deeds of kindness to others and such an excellent gift that all the other spiritual gifts are meaningless (see verses 1-3). He mentions that those other gifts will appear to be the most exceptional, like the gift of speaking in a heavenly or prophetic language (speaking in "tongues"), the gift of knowledge in interpreting such utterances, the gift of prophecy, and the relationship of these various gifts to each other. However, he says that all these seemingly marvelous works mean nothing if they are not founded in love; without love, the gift of tongues is only so much noise. Love has to be the motivation behind both words and deeds.
Next, he speaks of the need for maturity in the Christian's growth from a child in Christ with only a little understanding to a mature servant of the Lord. And yet, in this earthly reality, the Christian only has a partial vision of what is to come. Paul writes knowledge that leads to maturity cannot be separated from faith and acquires its whole meaning in the Christian who lives by the virtues of faith, hope, and love. However, Paul writes, the greatest of these virtues is love because it has the leading role in Christian life. The prominent role of love comes from Jesus's command that we must love each other as He has loved us to abide in His love, as He told His disciples in His sermon at the Last Supper in John 15:9-19.
Paul writes that love is the supreme Christian virtue because it projects the love of Christ beyond the material world and into the age to come. Love has eternal value and is the reason why Christians will "know fully" and be "fully known" by God when they enter the heavenly reality. Faith and hope will serve their purpose and pass away to be replaced by fulfillment when we depart from this world into the eternity of the next. Then, only eschatological love will remain forever with us in the heavenly Kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity.
The Gospel of Luke 4:21-30 ~ Jesus's Sermon in the
Nazareth Synagogue
21 Jesus began
speaking to them in the Synagogue, saying: "Today this scripture passage is
fulfilled in your hearing." 22 And
all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from
his mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?" 23 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.'" 24 And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is
accepted in his own native place. 25 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. 26 It was to none of
these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of
Sidon. 27 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." 28
When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with
fury. 29 They rose up, drove him
out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been
built, to hurl him down headlong. 30 But
he passed through the midst of them and went away.
Luke 4:14-30 recounts a sermon Jesus gave at the Synagogue of His hometown in Nazareth. In that teaching, He used three Old Testament references:
Jesus came to His hometown of Nazareth and attended the Sabbath day (Saturday) service in the local Synagogue. It was "His custom" to keep the Sabbath command by coming to the Synagogue when He wasn't in Jerusalem to attend the Temple liturgy (see Lk 4:16). The Synagogue's president had the authority to ask any male of the covenant to read and expound on the Scripture passage to the congregation. He asked Jesus to stand and read for that Saturday Sabbath service. The passage Jesus read was from the Greek Septuagint translation of the scroll of Isaiah 61:1-2, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings [good news = gospel] 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" (Lk 4:18-19; see last Sunday's Gospel reading).
After reading Isaiah 61:1-2 from the Septuagint translation of the scroll of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah, Jesus made a startling announcement. He told the congregation that He fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy. Jesus revealed to His neighbors that He was the promised "Anointed One" that Isaiah wrote about in this passage. Therefore, He had the authority to proclaim an extraordinary divine Jubilee liberation for the people of God as described in the prophecy. "Anointed One" is the meaning of the word "Messiah" and refers to one anointed with God's Spirit, just as God's prophets, priests, and kings, like King David, were "the anointed of God." Jesus then declared to the congregation His role as the chosen servant of God that Isaiah wrote about, the One "anointed" with the Spirit to bring justice to the earth.
At first, the people in the congregation were delighted: And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at
the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this the
son of Joseph?" 23 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.'" 24 And he said, "Amen,
I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Despite their favorable response to His announcement, Jesus
knew their thoughts and their desire for some miracle to prove His claim.
22b They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?" Their comment was not necessarily a negative response to Jesus's announcement, as the little proverb He quoted next proves. Jesus quoted the first of two proverbs, saying to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself.'" He quoted them a little secular proverb that was a well-known maxim in antiquity. It was usually employed in an argument to insist that one must not do favors for others that are refused to one's people or that one must not benefit another by refusing the same benefits to one's own family or community. In other words, the people of Nazareth heard of the miracles Jesus worked for the people of Capernaum. They were expecting the same benefit of miracles for their community, as He referred to when He said, "and say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum'" (Lk 4:23).
Capernaum was the hometown of Simon-Peter, his brother Andrew, and the brothers John and James Zebedee. The first-century AD Jewish priest-historian, Flavius Josephus, wrote that Capernaum had natural springs and was one of the most important towns in the region. It was also the major commercial and population center on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee (Jewish Wars, 3.10.8 [519]. Many fishermen like Peter, formerly from Bethsaida, located their fishing business there since there was a processing business for salting and shipping fish in nearby Taricheae ("preserved fish town"). The Romans made contracts with local fishermen for shipping salt-preserved fish and manufactured fish sauce to parts of the Roman Empire. Capernaum became the headquarters for Jesus' Galilean ministry.
24 And he said,
"Amen [Amen, amen], I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native
place.
"Amen" is a Hebrew word used in a proclamation or
corroborating statement in both the Old and New Testaments. It is often doubled
to emphasize the importance of a statement and is the only Hebrew word in
Luke's Gospel. The same proverb that Jesus mentioned appears with slight
variations in all the Gospels (Mt 13:57; Mk 6:4 and Jn 4:44) and secular
documents like the Oxyrhynchus Papyri and the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas.
But what did Jesus mean by quoting this maxim? The answer is in the passages Jesus then refers to from the ministry of the prophets Elijah and Elisha in 1 Kings 17:9-24 and 2 Kings 5:1-14. Jesus told the congregation: "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. 26 It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 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" (Luke 4:25-27).
First, He has put Himself in the same class as the prophets Elijah and Elisha whose stories He referenced: He is a prophet. And, as a prophet, He is predicting the historical precedent that all God's prophets, throughout salvation history, have been rejected by their countrymen. Jesus's point is that the people of Nazareth's previously formed perception of Him as only a member of their community that they have known since He was a child will inhibit their faith in Him as the Messiah. Their assumptions about Him will also impede the vision of who He is and what He has come to accomplish.
Then, Jesus cites the works of two prophets who their countrymen rejected. In the days of Elijah, the people turned away from God; they rejected His prophets, apostatized from their covenant with Yahweh, and gave themselves up to worship the false god Baal (1 Kng 16:29-33). God punished the Israelites for their sins by withholding the rains, and famine spread over the land (1 Kng 17:1). But God did not send the prophet Elijah to help the Israelites who had rejected Him. Instead, God sent Elijah to the city of Sidon to help a Gentile widow (see 1 Kng 17:2, 9-24). Sidon was one of the oldest Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast about 20 miles north of Tyre (near modern-day Beirut).
In the second example, Jesus cited the story of Elijah's successor, the prophet Elisha and his intervention in the life of the Gentile army commander of the King of Aram. When the King of Aram sent a letter with his general requesting that an Israelite prophet he had heard about could heal his general of leprosy, the King of Israel did not think to send for Elisha to heal Commander Naaman. However, Elisha offered to provide the healing for the man as evidence that "there is a prophet in Israel" (see 2 Kng 5:1-14). Out of desperation and not belief, the King of Israel sent Naaman to Elisha. When Elisha healed the Aramean of his leprosy, Naaman acknowledged "there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel."
The two stories had in common that when the covenant people of Israel rejected God's prophets, He sent His prophets to the Gentiles who were more receptive to His gift of grace. Unfortunately, Jesus's neighbors responded with anger to His message. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong (Lk 6:29).
What is the significance of both these stories that Jesus cited to the Israelites of Nazareth, and what made them so angry that they wanted to kill Him? Jesus's implied threat was not lost on the people of Nazareth: when the covenant people reject the works of God through His prophets, God sends His prophets to do His works among the Gentiles. The suggestion that their rejection of Jesus could also lead to the offer of God's grace to the Gentiles enraged the Israelites of Nazareth. However, they might also have tried to kill Him because they judged Him to be a false prophet for refusing to do a miracle for them.
The "brow of the hill" mentioned in verse 29 has been problematic since no topographical feature could be found in present-day Nazareth to correspond to this description. However, excavations have uncovered a rock formation below the surface of modern Nazareth buried by later building on the site that could fit the description of the hill in the passage (McKenzie, "Nazareth," page 608).
30 But he passed
through the midst of them and went away.
When the townspeople attempted to kill Jesus, He
miraculously "passed through" the crowd and went away. What was ironic about
Jesus escaping the wrath of the Nazoreans is that they wanted Jesus to perform
a miracle for them. His disappearing from them was the only miracle they would
ever witness in their town.
The initial admiration and acceptance Jesus received followed by the subsequent rejection of His message and the attempt to kill Him by the people of his hometown foreshadows the whole future of His ministry. At first, the Jews of Judah and Israelites of Galilee will gladly receive Jesus's healings, miraculous acts, and teachings. But then the opposition will grow until His rejection by many of His countrymen and women will succeed in having Him put to death. Jesus's death and resurrection will lead to the birth of the Kingdom of the "new Israel" of the New Covenant Church. His Apostles and disciples, as His ministers of the Universal Church of Jesus Christ, will carry His Gospel message of salvation to the "ends of the earth" to the Gentile nations (as prophesied by St. Simeon in Lk 1:30-32 and commanded by Jesus in Mt 28:19; Lk 24:47-48 and Acts 1:8).
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2016; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.
Catechism References (* indicates Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Jeremiah 1:5 (CCC 2270*)
1 Corinthians 13:1-4 (CCC 1826*), 13:4-7 (CCC 1825*); 13:5 (CCC 953*); 13:8 (CCC 773*); 13:13 (CCC 163*, 164*, 314*, 1023*, 1720*, 2519*); 13:13 (CCC 1813*, 1826*, 1841)
Luke 4:21-30 (CCC 436*, 1547)
Christ as prophet (CCC 436*, 1241, 1546*)
Our participation in Christ's prophetic office (CCC 904-907)
Faith, the beginning of eternal life (CCC 103, 104*)
Charity (CCC 1822, 1823*, 1824*, 1825*, 1826*, 1827*, 1828*, 1829)
Communion in the Church (CCC 772-773, 953)
Those in Heaven behold God face to face (CCC 314, 1023, 2519)