The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time [Cycle C]

Image from ocarm.org

It's the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time and today we listen to the Lord's proclamation of the fulfillment of what the Prophet Isaiah has written centuries before him as recorded in the Gospel according to St Luke:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." [Isaiah 61: 1-2].

This was "good news" and it made the people react joyfully as the continuation of the reading would tell us especially since they have been hearing about the miracles that he worked in other cities of Israel. They also wondered how he could have worked those miracles and how he could have such eloquence in speaking identifying him only as the "son of Joseph, the carpenter".

Their initial reaction of joy and wonder changed when he mentioned how they, his fellow Nazarenes, would probably use the quotation, "Physician heal thyself" since he had been performing miracles in other places - why not here on your own town? They became so enraged when he started talking about how God sent Elijah to a pagan widow instead of Israelite women when famine ravaged the land and how Elisha cured only the Syrian army officer Naaman of leprosy though there were many Israelites leprose who needed  the same help during his time. They felt insulted about the comparisons - especially with Gentiles and leprose people and they wanted to throw him our of their city but he just walked through them without being harmed.

The Jews were very proud of their being a Chosen People and even if they were then under the rule of the Romans and have been subjugated by foreign powers many times and were even exiled to Babylon, they still considered themselves free and "un-enslaved" [see John 8:33]. Hence comparing them to heathens, gentiles or pagans especially leprose people was an insult for them. This attitude was the cause of their failure to recognize the Lord and to acknowledge the presence of God-made-flesh among them. Isaiah have already prophesied that the "Emmanuel" would come and yet their pride blocked their ability to experience his coming and his presence. 

Many times we, Christians, also fail to recognize the Lord when he comes to be present among us. We are many times so focused on material things and temporal influences and happenings that we forget that God comes into our lives in many simple ways though ordinary people, everyday events, the usual things we all consider so trivial that God could not be found there at all! We wait for the Lord's coming in a grandiose manner forgetting that when that  moment comes he would be as a judge judging us as to how we "treated" him through those ordinary people, everyday events, and usual things.

In every moment of our life the Lord manifests himself and fulfills the Scriptures. May we never be so engrossed about earthly matters and fail recognizing him when he comes in so simple and ordinary manner.