Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
St. Blase, Bishop & Martyr (+ 316)
Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine : "He passed through the midst of them and went away"
Reading
Lk 4:21-30.
He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"
He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"
And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 61, 14-18 (Dolbeau)
"He passed through the midst of them and went away"
A doctor came amongst us to restore us to health: our Lord Jesus Christ. He
discovered blindness in our hearts and promised the light that “eye has not
seen and ear has not heard, and has not entered the heart of man” (1Cor
2,9). The humility of Jesus Christ is the cure for your pride. Don't
scorn what will bring you healing; be humble, you for whom God humbled
himself. Indeed, he knew that the medicine of humility would cure you, he
who well understood your sickness and knew how to cure it. While you were
unable to run to the doctor's house, the doctor in person came to your
house... He is coming, he wants to help you; he knows what you need.God has
come with humility precisely in order that man might imitate him. If he had
remained above you, how would you have been able to imitate him? And,
without imitating him, how could you be healed? He came with humility
because he knew the nature of the remedy he had to administer: a little
bitter, it is true, but healing. And do you continue to scorn him? He who
holds out the cup to you and you say: “But what sort of God is this God of
mine? He was born, suffered, was covered with spittle, crowned with thorns,
nailed on the cross!” O miserable soul! You see the doctor's humility and
not the cancer of your pride. That is why humility displeases you...It
often happens that mentally ill people end up by beating their doctor. When
that happens, the unfortunate doctor not only is not distressed by the one
who beat him but attempts to treat him... As for our doctor, he did not
fear being killed by sick people afflicted with madness: he turned his own
death into their remedy. Indeed, he died and rose again.
0 comments:
Post a Comment