While at Synagogue, Jesus reveals a God whose love is for all people. His revelation angers the men there who believe they are the special love of a special god. Jesus then reminds them of a couple of instances when their own rather selectively loving deity managed to expand his special love. He recalls stories of two foreigners who helped Israelites in the past and were spared. His reminders don’t help, “When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.”
While words of fury or anger are contained within the Bible, words of love are too. They are among the most moving in literature. Often, they reflect the Old Testament’s special love for chosen ones, which is the love Jesus’ synagogue listeners expect to hear from him. Every once and awhile, the special love can also be interpreted for everyone. Today’s first reading from Jeremiah includes such special words of love, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you.” The passage is often spoken by pregnant women and read at baptisms. It reflects a special love, the committed love a mother expresses intensely for her child. Today’s second reading from Paul is equally lovely, “Love is patient, love is kind.” Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” This passage too reflects a special love, a love of great commitment, great maturity that will be steadfast in times of trial. Among the celebrations in this month of February is a celebration of love, Valentine’s Day. We think of Valentine’s Day love as special love but sometimes in a superficial manner, dreamy and as infatuation. But the Saint Valentine tradition is so much more. It is a special and committed and mature love. It is a love that stretches across centuries and cultures. It is the love of brave men and courageous women persecuted and killed because their love was steadfast in times of trial. It is the love of Jesus shared with the furious men in the synagogue that day. “They rose up, drove him to the edge of a cliff.” “But Jesus passed through the midst of them” and as he did so, he kept on loving them. He kept on loving their supporters. He kept on loving those who were unsure and needed time to live into such love. He kept on loving with a great and deep love. It is the deep love of every mother for their child, of every father; the love of every husband and every wife. It is a special love for a chosen one filled with scented flowers and sweet candy. It is also a special love lived as “a harsh and dreadful thing.” For it endures diapers and delusions, disagreements and disappointments. Sometimes we feel near to a cliff and likely to go over but, like Jesus, we walk through the midst of it, and keep loving, day in and day out.
“’I love humanity,’ he said, ‘but I wonder at myself. The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular. In my dreams,’ he said, ‘I have often come to making enthusiastic schemes for the service of humanity, and perhaps I might actually have faced crucifixion if it had been suddenly necessary; and yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone for two days together, as I know by experience. As soon as anyone is near me, his personality disturbs my self-complacency and restricts my freedom. … Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labour and fortitude.” (The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky)
Prayer: Spirit of Love, fill me with love in action, day in and day out.
Question: Who am I having difficulties with and need to keep on loving?
February 3, 2019 Gospel Luke 4:21-30 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time