The Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time January 30, 2022

                                   The Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

January 30, 2022

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Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19; Psalm 71; 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:30; Luke 4:21-30

 

          This is really a wild Gospel scene in which, at the very start of the mission of Jesus, his own townspeople are in awe of the words that Jesus speaks, for he speaks as someone well trained and with great authority, but just a few minutes later, they realize he is just the carpenter’s son, and they take him to the top of a hill to throw him down and kill him. The man they knew was a carpenter, and not a man formally trained in Scripture or the Law, and yet he spoke dangerously. He did not graduate from scripture school; he does not have any degree. He spoke as one who was infused with his religious tradition and suddenly became an authority. His own villagers cannot comprehend it and want to kill what they fail to understand. What is in the human heart that drives a person to deliberately want to do away with another person? Also, why can we not see the goodness and the beauty in those who are closest to us?

 

          The words of Jesus were dangerous when he declared the Scripture fulfilled in their hearing. The people heard, and yet they did not listen. It all sounded good and then they started to doubt the good news they were hearing. The fact that he declared himself a near deity was too much for the people to hold. They knew this man too well. He had his faults and limitations, he was just like them, and who was he to think that he was more special than them.

 

          We may all know a person who sees the negative side of everything. Nothing will ever satisfy the person or make her happy. Those who are balanced are tested by the one who always drags down the conversation and finds something to criticize. We may tire of it because it just is not interesting. The one who finds beauty and wonder, goodness and possibilities is the one who is interesting, but we have to bear with those who simply will not permit themselves to acknowledge the good in others. We know that we cannot do or say anything to help the person say something positive. Any change that will occur is when the person has her own change of heart. 

 

          When we have crowds of people sharing in their negativity, we end up with a situation like the Gospel, in which the crowd wants to kill its own neighbor. They do violence and destroy what they do not understand. They act out of their powerlessness and have no adequate means of articulating what they are feeling or experiencing. No intervention will turn matters around. It is only when each individual person allows his heart to be changed, to have his suffering understood, to hear and to understand what his words cannot speak, that real change is possible. Hearts are changed one at a time, by an act of love and acceptance. 

 

          We can choose how we want to see the world – full of evil, badness, and violence, or one that is filled with sacredness, goodness, and peace. Whichever lens we see from, that is the direction we will go. The Gospel is spread to one ear at a time. Will we allow God’s message to settle into our hearts so we can make it our own? If we do, we will see the world of promise and beauty, of wonder and opportunities. Life is hard. It is easier if we do this together, and we will help each other to see God’s promises and to celebrate what is good and right with the world. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (2 Samuel 15) An informant came to David with the report, “The children of Israel have transferred their loyalty to Absalom.” At this, David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem: “Up!  Let us take flight, or none of us will escape from Absalom. Leave quickly, lest he hurry and overtake us.

 

Tuesday: (2 Samuel 18) Absalom unexpectedly came up against David’s servants.
He was mounted on a mule, and, as the mule passed under the branches of a large terebinth, his hair caught fast in the tree. He hung between heaven and earth while the mule he had been riding ran off.

 

Wednesday: (Malachi 3) Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek, And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.

 

Thursday: (1 Kings 2) David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. The length of David’s reign over Israel was forty years: he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

 

Friday (Sirach 47) He added beauty to the feasts and solemnized the seasons of each year So that when the Holy Name was praised, before daybreak the sanctuary would resound. The Lord forgave him his sins and exalted his strength forever; He conferred on him the rights of royalty and established his throne in Israel. 

 

Saturday (1 Kings 3) Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Mark 5) Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat, at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.

 

Tuesday: (Mark 5) One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.”

 

Wednesday (Luke 2) When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.

 

Thursday (Mark 6) Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick –no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

 

Friday (Mark 6) King Herod heard about Jesus, for his fame had become widespread, and people were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead;
that is why mighty powers are at work in him.” 

 

Saturday (Mark 6) “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.

 

Saints of the Week

 

January 31: John Bosco, priest (1815-1888), formed his Society to aid children who were imprisoned. He used Francis de Sales as his inspiration. He taught poor and working-class boys in the evenings wherever it was possible to meet them - in fields, factories, or homes. A sister community was set up to assist young girls who were sent to work. 

 

February 2: The Presentation of the Lord is the rite by which the firstborn male is presented in the Temple as an offering to God. It occurs 40 days after the birth while the new mother is considered ritually unclean. Two church elders, Simeon and Anna, who represent the old covenant, praise Jesus and warn his mother that her heart will be pierced as her son will bring the salvation of many.

 

February 3: Blase, bishop and martyr (d. 316), was an Armenian martyr of the persecution of Licinius. Legends hold that a boy, choking to death on a fishbone, was miraculously cured. Blase's intercession has been invoked for cures for throat afflictions. The candles presented at Candlemas the day earlier are used in the rite of the blessings of throats.

 

February 3: Angsar, bishop (815-865), became a monk to preach to pagans. He lived at the French Benedictine monastery of New Corbie and was sent to preach in Denmark and Sweden. He was made abbot and then became archbishop of Hamburg. He is known as the Apostle of the North because he restored Denmark to the faith and helped bolster the faith of other Scandinavians. 

 

February 4: John de Brito, S.J., priest, religious, and martyr (1647-1693), was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary who served in India and was named “The Portuguese Francis Xavier” to the Indians. De Brito was martyred because he counseled a Maravan prince during his conversion to give up all but one of his wives. One of the wives was a niece to the neighboring king, who set up a round of persecutions against priests and catechists. 

 

February 5: Agatha, martyr, (d. 251), died in Sicily during the Diocletian persecution after she refused to give up her faith when sent to a brothel for punishment. She was subsequently tortured. Sicilians believe her intercession stopped Mount Etna from erupting the year after her burial. She has been sought as a protector against fire and in mentioned in the First Eucharistic prayer. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• January 30, 1633. At Avignon, Fr. John Pujol, a famous master of novices, died. He ordered one of them to water a dry stick, which miraculously sprouted. 
• January 31, 1774. Fr. General Laurence Ricci, a prisoner in Castel S Angelo, claimed his liberty, since his innocence had been fully vindicated. He received from the Papal Congregation the reply that they would think about it. Pope Clement XIV was said at this time to be mentally afflicted. 
• February 1, 1549. The first Jesuit missionaries to go to Brazil set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, under Fr. Emmanuel de Nobrega. 
• February 2, 1528. Ignatius arrived in Paris to begin his program of studies at the University of Paris. 
• February 3, 1571. In Florida, the martyrdom of Fr. Louis Quiros and two novices, shot with arrows by an apostate Indian. 
• February 4, 1617. An imperial edict banished all missionaries from China. 
• February 5, 1833. The first provincial of Maryland, Fr. William McSherry, was appointed.