We have all lived through a lot of strange things in the last two years. Right when COVID was beginning to spread throughout the U.S., I was on a trip to San Diego. When I left, things were basically normal; when I returned, the Bishop recommended self-quarantining with my parents instead of immediately returning back to my parish assignment. So I spent two weeks at home with my mom and dad. We converted their living room into a chapel and I livestreamed Mass for all of my parishioners who weren’t able to get to Mass in person because the churches were closed. After my two week self-quarantine was up, I returned to Immaculate Conception in Tuscarawas County. And because of the stay at home order in place, after that I didn’t leave the county for about two months. During that time, I only saw my family through Zoom calls, which doesn’t compare to the real thing.
Finally, Memorial Day 2020 rolled around and I finally got to see my parents and some of my siblings in person for the first time in several months. We all met up in Somerset, Ohio to pray at the graves of some of my relatives and have lunch together at a local restaurant. I can still remember the joy in every fiber of my being as I drove up and saw my parents in person. It was a great thing to be able to run up and hug them. Simply being together in person was such a gift. I’m sure many of you can think of similar experiences.
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus is faced with a totally different experience than being reunited with loved ones. In fact, the crowds who had previously been listening attentively to Him are now ready to toss him over a cliff! What is going on here? What caused such a dramatic change in the people of Jesus’ hometown? Their actions and words are pretty revealing.
They have just heard Jesus refer to Himself as the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah. They have some inkling that He exhibited a power they had never experienced before. As we heard in last week’s Gospel, all of their eyes had been fixed intently on Him and they were listening to His every word. But how easy it is for their confidence to falter. It happened in the blink of an eye! Jesus wanted to heal their hearts and bring them to love in ways they never thought possible. But just as they are about to open themselves to His love, something shifts. St. Luke, through his inspired words, shows us this shift in just two short sentences: “And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, ‘Isn’t this the son of Joseph?’”
Just like that, they turn from amazement at Jesus’ words to skepticism about His ability to give them what they want. Jesus calls them out on this. He can see what’s going on in their hearts. They’re caught up on Jesus’ earthly parentage because they are focused on what Jesus can give them, rather than the depth of who He is. They have heard through the grapevine that Jesus can perform mighty miracles and they want to receive these good things from Him, but without actually giving themselves to Him. They want the healings and multiplications, but not the responsibility of loving and following Him. Their hearts are stuck on an ultimately selfish approach to relationships. Jesus is just another person who can give them something, rather than the capital ‘p’ Person they can give themselves to. Jesus knows they need something more than full bellies or even healed bodies. He knows that their hearts are in need of Him and His redeeming and sanctifying love.
Down through the ages, this challenge has been there for anyone encountering Jesus. How will we respond to Him? Will we approach Him with the childish attitude of taking or the childlike attitude of receiving? These are two radically different ways of being. One is prideful and self-focused, while the other is humble and other-focused. The humble attitude is the one that Jesus, with His grace, constantly invites our hearts to embrace. This humble openness to Jesus as our Savior and Lord is a key component of love.
True love calls our hearts out of themselves. It leads us to delight in others and in God simply because of who they are, not because of what they can give us or do for us. Of course, they can and will give us things and do things for us, but that is secondary. Jesus calls out the crowds in His hometown because their hearts are not set on loving Him and following Him, but on using Him for their own personal gain. He challenges them to give up this selfishness by reminding them of non-Jewish people who outdid their ancestors in love. He points to the widow in Zarephath, who wasn’t a Jew, but whose love for God and the prophet Elijah allowed her to be fed for a whole year during a famine. He also speaks of Naaman the Syrian, another non-Jew whose servant challenged him to love God by trusting in the prophet Elisha’s instructions. Naaman was cleansed of leprosy because he put aside his skepticism and trusted through love. In a sense, Jesus was saying to the people of Nazareth: “These outsiders put you all to shame by their love!” This made them so furious that they were even ready to kill Him! Ultimately they abandoned love in their hearts that day.
St. Paul knew deeply about the importance of love. Through his journey of following Jesus, he was able to pen the beautiful poem about true love that we heard in the second reading:
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
This is the kind of love that Jesus desires to fill each of us with: a love which draws us to give ourselves away to God and others, a love which is satisfied by being with the beloved and isn’t so concerned about what he or she can give us or do for us. Let us pray for Jesus to open our hearts to this powerful love that only He can give. This type of love happens when we come to Jesus often through prayer, not seeking anything other than the gift of being with Him who has loved us abundantly from before creation. God’s words to the prophet Elijah in the first reading apply to all of us: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”
When I was reunited with my parents after months apart from them, the joy I felt wasn’t because of anything they could do for me, but because of who they were. I was simply happy to be with them again. This is just a mere glimpse of what Jesus invites all of us to every day: the purest joy of being with Him who loves each of us perfectly and uniquely, and then letting His love flow through us to others.
+ Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us the ability to share in who You are by loving You and our neighbor. Jesus, thank You for the grace You give us to help us love others as You love us: selflessly and holding nothing back. Holy Spirit, inspire a deeper desire in our hearts to be with Jesus in prayer so that we might experience His love and let it infuse our entire life. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +