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4th
Sunday in Ordinary Time Lk 4/21-30 |
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| Background:
Jesus patently did not see himself as a political and military leader. Indeed his
claims are in striking contrast of the messianic portrait in the reading from Jeremiah
which is the first reading today. However, his claims were clearly offensive to his fellow
townspeople. Indeed, he might have had less trouble with them if he announced, like
several other populist leaders of his era, that he was proclaiming a holy war against the
Romans and would lead a march on Jerusalem. As we saw last Sunday, however, his vision of
the New Age was drastically different. So he was offensive to his neighbors both because
he made and outrageous claim and because the claim was not, as they saw it, radical
enough. |
read the padre |
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Story:
A famous novelist came back to his home town after many years. He had pledged to contribute two million
dollars for a new hospital. Many of his friends from his school days were invited to a
reception for him and his wife. Some of them ignored the invitation. Why only two million,
they muttered. He could have paid for the whole hospital with all the money he has. The
rest went to the party, but they were not particularly happy about the whole event. Who
does this guy think he is? He’d been a quiet, unobtrusive little guy when he was in
school, the kind of person you’d hardly notice. He generally was not invited
anywhere. None of the women in his class would have considered dating him if they had been
asked, only he never asked. They had heard rumors that his novels were about the town and
about them. They believed the rumors of course, but since they hadn’t read any of his
books, they didn’t know for sure. He had to find a freshman to take to the senior
prom! So he’d made a lot of money on his novels? Why did that make him a big deal? OK
give the money for the hospital, but you should have given more with all you have, but
don’t show up in town and expect us to cheer for you. You’re not a big deal now
and you never were. Nor were they impressed with the beautiful woman he had married. (They
had known her an obnoxious freshman.) Anyone can look beautiful if her husband has a lot
of money. She was still cheap despite all their money. They didn’t join the receiving
line, because they didn’t want to have to talk to either of them. However, he had the
nerve to walk around the room and say hello to everyone and recall incidents from their
school days which they never remembered. They tried to be polite but it was very hard.
Then they went home and said to their children. He’s not a big deal. He never was.
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