OT IV [C] (Jer 1:4-5, 17-19; 1 Cor 12:31—13:13; Lk 4:21-30)

The movie Black Like Me is based on a book by the same title written by John Howard Griffin. It documents his experiences when he had his skin darkened to pose as a Negro and travelled for a month through the Deep South in the late 1950’s. John Howard Griffin was born in Dallas of a mother who was a concert pianist. As a youth he studied psychiatry in France. During World War II he was wounded while serving in the army and went blind as a result. In 1947 Griffin returned to Texas to study Braille and become a novelist. After ten years of blindness, he recovered his eyesight in a dramatic way and was able to see his wife and two children for the first time. Griffin then got a job with a Negro magazine. It was during this time that he undertook his Black Like Me adventure. Griffin went on to become a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, thus incurring a backlash of hatred from white racists, ranging from threatening mail and phone calls to being hung in effigy by his own townspeople. Griffin died in 1980. The opposition Mr.Griffin encountered in his prophetic work for civil rights finds a parallel in today’s readings.

The central theme of today’s readings is that we should show the courage of our Christian convictions in our day-to-day lives in our communities, when we face hatred and rejection because of our Christian Faith. In both the first reading and the Gospel, Jeremiah and Jesus are presented as prophets, chosen, consecrated and sent to their brothers and sisters as emissaries of the Word of God. In his prophetic vocation, which he lived out while encountering rejection and persecution, Jeremiah anticipated Jesus, the greatest of all prophets.

At the start of Jeremiah's ministry, Yahweh warns the young prophet not to be intimidated by those to whom he prophesies (Jer 1:4-5, 17-19). "They will fight against you," Yahweh warns, "but will not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you." During his lifetime, Jeremiah was considered a total failure, but in later times he has been recognized as one of Israel’s greatest prophets.  Jeremiah is a wonderful example of “the triumph of failure."  

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel, presenting his own people’s reaction to Jesus’ Inaugural Address. In response to his townsmen's skepticism, Jesus referred to the Biblical stories of how God blessed two Gentiles, while rejecting the many Jews in similar situations.  The reason for this was that these Gentiles were more open to the prophets than the Jewish people.

The story of Jesus' rejection by his townsfolk is also a story about how we often ignore and reject God. When Jesus invites us to change we reject the invitation and resent him. We want Jesus to forgive and save us, but not to make us change, especially if the changes hurt. We are like the little boy whose bedtime prayer sounded like this, "Dear Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a real good time like I am."

In order for Jesus to heal us, He must first expose our sins, prejudices, and myths. That process is not pleasant. It made the folks in Nazareth fighting mad. In order for Jesus to heal them, he had to challenge some of their cherished myths and prejudices.

At the same time as believing Christians we also must have the prophetic courage of our convictions.  By our Baptism, God   calls us to be prophets like Jesus, sharing his prophetic mission.  The task of a prophet is to speak and to live out God’s truth.   We must never be afraid of this call, for it is Jesus who will supply us with the courage, the words and the deeds we will need to oppose the many evils in our society.  Our society tells adults and youngsters that promiscuous sex, drugs, gambling and alcohol are legitimate pleasures for modern, liberated people.   Our country needs to hear God’s Truth from Spirit-filled Christians with the prophetic courage of their convictions. Heroes like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King consistently refused to retaliate violently while affirming the dignity of every person, including their enemies.

We need to be kind, charitable, honest, forgiving and clear in speaking out our Christian convictions as Jesus was when He spoke in the synagogue. We live in a pluralistic society, but as the American Bishops say in their document Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics "Real pluralism depends on people of conviction struggling to advance their beliefs by every ethical and legal means at their disposal." We are all aware of what is happening in our country these days, especially the abortion issue. The country has been clearly divided into two poles. As Isaiah 5:20 says they call right evil and evil is called right.

Last year in Brooklyn, New York, there was a terrible accident. A seventh-grade student died on a Friday afternoon in a pool accident. The following Monday when the class came back to school, as you can imagine, they were emotionally distraught. Some of the kids were crying. One of the children asked their teacher, Mrs. Rezario, “Do you think Johnny is in Heaven?” And Mrs. Rezario said, “Of course he is. God loves every one of you. Look, I am going over to the corner here and if anyone wants to come over with me I will say a little prayer for Johnny. And those of you who don’t want to do that, go on and turn your computers on and we’ll be with you in a moment.” Mrs. Rezario was fired the next day. No appeals. No second chances. There is a woman in the New York City school system, a counselor, who a couple of years ago took a fifteen-year-old girl to an abortion clinic without telling her parents, and the girl bled to death. She is still a counselor in the New York public schools. But Mrs. Rezario – she committed the unpardonable sin. She told her children God loved them, and prayed with them. A war is on and the culture of evil and death seems to be winning. But remember what God told Jeremiah: They will fight against you but will not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you.

As Joshua 24:14-15 says, "Choose this day whom you will serve." Choose on whose side you are going to stand.