Daily Gospel Reflection

The Power of Ordinary People

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the genius of Jesus in the Gospels. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke 4:16-30. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And he went to the synagogue as his custom was on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read. And there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written. "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 of 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." And he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And all spoke well of him and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, "Is not this Joseph's son?"

And he said to them, "Doubtless, you will quote to me this proverb, physician heal thyself. What we have heard you did in Capernaum, do here also in our own country." And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows of Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarapath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman, Assyrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath and they rose up and put him out of the city and led him to the brow of a hill of which the city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. But passing through their midst, he went away.

What is that jumps out at you today? Remember, each day we're looking for a word, phrase, or an idea to pray about, to anchor our day in, to allow us to travel through the day with the gospel in our hearts. We see here initial doubts of Jesus always. So he's doing these great things. They're aware of these great things. But they say like, "Well, hold on a minute. Isn't this Joseph's son?" And of course, in this, there's a fundamental human nature. And there's a mistake that continues to be made throughout history over and over and over and over and over again. And that is that everybody is the son of somebody, okay? And very rarely are the men and women who do extraordinary things, the sons and daughters of parents who did extraordinary things. And so this complaint, this doubt, this questioning is over and over again. But what do we know? Throughout history, God always used one type of person. What type of person? The person who makes himself available to him.

Are we making ourselves available to God? Because when we make ourselves available to God, God does extraordinary things in us and through us and with us. Have an amazing day. And remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.