*** 1st Reading ***

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

When I came to reveal to you he mystery of God’s plan

I did not count on eloquence or on a show of learning. I was determined not to know anything among you but Jesus, the Messiah, and a crucified Messiah. I myself came weak, fearful and trem­bling; my words and preach­ing were not brilliant or clever to win listeners. 

It was, rather, a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might be a matter, not of human wisdom, but of God’s power.

 

Ps 119:97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102

Lord, I love your commands.

 

**** Gospel ****

Luke 4:16-30

When Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the book of the prophet Isaiah.

Jesus then unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed and announce the Lord’s year of mercy.”

Jesus then rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant and sat down, while the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he said to them, “Today these prophetic words come true even as you listen.”

 All agreed with him and were lost in wonder, while he kept on speaking of the grace of God. Nevertheless they asked, “Who is this but Joseph’s son?” So he said, “Doubtless you will quote me the saying: Doctor, heal yourself! Do here in your town what they say you did in Capernaum.”

 Jesus added, “No prophet is honored in his own country. Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens with­held rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land.

 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and no one was healed except Naaman, the Syrian.”

 On hearing these words, the whole assembly became indignant. They rose up and brought him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built, in­tending to throw him down the cliff. But he passed through their midst and went his way.

 

Gospel Reflection

A prophet is a social mirror. He or she lets his listeners look at themselves in the face and aim for the best of themselves, not stick with the bad, it is difficult to face ourselves especially with our own dirt and defects.

And it is more painful when someone else points to us those defects. Hence, it is more acceptable that one of our own shows to us what needs improvement. Jesus, as Nazorean, is best a mirror for Nazareth.

However, Jesus is not taken for what is best of Nazareth but for what is bad in any Nazorean. It takes a community to raise a prophet or a social conscience.

It also takes a community to destroy the values he or she is promoting. Every community is blessed if it has a prophet or social mirror. It also has to raise and listen to him or her.