Monday 3rd week of Lent
"Lk 4:24-30"
Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country...there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." 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 the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. But passing through the midst of them he went away.
Many fellow Nazarenes didn't believe Jesus to be a prophet. 'Because if You were a prophet', they might say, 'we would know'. In other words these people were saying something like: 'We decide who is and who isn't a prophet here'.
Imagine the 'Poets' Society of Stratford-upon-Avon' suing Shakespeare for publishing his work without their approval: it would have been ridiculous! The people of Nazareth were about to throw Jesus off the cliff just because He was chosen by God without their permission. Perhaps they told Jesus: 'Listen, it is fine if You perform miracles here... we love that stuff... but do not try to lecture us, because we know You are the Son of Joseph, the artisan'.
But Jesus' attitude here is remarkable. He didn't waste a second trying to argue or convince them. Their problem wasn't a lack of faith but an excess of pride. There is a classic Greek saying that reads: "The worst deaf person is the one who doesn't want to hear." Until they get rid of their pride they will never receive the supernatural virtue of Faith.
Charles de Foucauld was a young rich playboy who had done whatever he wanted throughout his whole life. He even had a lover he didn't intend to marry. One day he met a priest, Fr. Huvelin, and asked him to explain the Catholic Faith to him. The priest, instead of explaining anything, "made me kneel down," wrote Foucauld, "made me go to Confession, and sent me to Communion right away." St Charles de Foucauld, as he is known now, could then understand the Faith. Without grace, how difficult it is to be humble; without humility, how difficult it is to know the truth! Let's ask Our Lady for the grace that many may come to the Truth in this Season of Lent.
