TOO SIMPLE
Now this all
sounds like Gospel material and seems as though it would be Good News indeed,
but to the crowd, it is anything but good news.
Jesus
speaks the glad tidings of God's favor to the poor; liberty to captives; sight
to the blind; oppressed go free in the year acceptable to the Lord. The initial
reaction to Jesus by the people in His own town synagogue was favorable. When
they realize, however, the full implication of what He is saying, that He is
claiming to be the fulfillment of the prophecy, their favor turns and they
begin to wonder, "How can this be? How can the son of a carpenter be all
that he claims to be?" Think about this for a moment. This problem
develops during the social hour after worship. Over a cup of coffee and a
donut, the people ask Jesus a couple of questions about His sermon. He explains
exactly what He meant by "liberty" and "glad tidings." His
two examples of a widow being cared for and a leper being healed are too many
for the crowd.
Now
this all sounds like Gospel material and seems as though it would be Good News
indeed, but to the crowd, it is anything but good news. The widow and the leper
are foreigners, outsiders and not a part of God's people. In a sense, Jesus is
saying, "I am challenging you all to expand your notions about the people
on whom God's favor rests." Maybe if Jesus would have better credentials,
such as wealth, grandeur and prestigious parents, he probably would be readily
acceptable to the populace. As it was, everything about Jesus is too simple.
In
today's first reading St. Paul faces much of the same difficulty. In his
preaching he did not resort to the philosophical sophistication of the day. He
is a mere tent maker who speaks a simple message with reliance on the Power of
the Spirit, not human ingenuity. The result is that some of the Corinthians are
being led astray by arguments and shallow reasoning. God's ways are different
from our own. Some people wonder why God does not make use of His power to
crush all the bad things that can happen to us in this world. Others yearn for
Christ Jesus to come again in majesty and splendor in order to convince all the
skeptics that Christianity is right after all. God prefers the simple
unassuming approach. He is like the confident person who is aware of his
authority and ability and does not feel that he must prove it to anyone.
We
do not understand all the reasons why God chooses to do things the way He does.
One reason is that displays of power and majesty leave little room for faith.
God wants us to accept the simple words of Sacred Scripture as His inspired
Words. He wants us to see through the veil of bread and wine to the reality of the
Eucharist despite Its ordinary appearance. And He wants us to accept that the
son of a carpenter is actually His own divine Son.
Faith
- a complete, fully accepted kind of faith - is the mark of one who is truly
devoted to God and to His way of doing things, not our own.