Monday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
After three months of meditating on Matthew’s Gospel, the Church begins today her meditations on the public ministry of Jesus detailed in the Gospel according to Luke. One of the first events in Jesus’ ministry that Luke describes is the rejection at Nazareth. At first, the people of Jesus’ hometown “were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” (Lk 4:22) Then at the mention of God’s favor being shown to the Gentiles, the town of Nazareth joins together in an effort to kill Jesus. In our fallen world, the followers of Christ should be ready to suffer rejection with Christ who was rejected. St. Paul had been scorned after preaching in the midst of the wise Athenians in Greece. Perhaps it was for this reason that he came to preach in the next city, Corinth, “in weakness and fear and much trembling.” (1Cor 2:3) In the end, the Corinthians listened to the word of God which St. Paul preached. We are called to proclaim our faith in Jesus before others.
We may be heard or we may be rejected. Either way, let us ask God to make us humble, so that our joy or sadness does not come from the praise or scorn of others, but from whether or not we are united with our humble Lord.