No prophet is accepted in his own native place

3 FEBRUARY (Lk 4,21-30)

The life of prophets is tough. Being their mission that of reporting the true Word of the Lord in a world of false prophets, false worshipers of God, wicked and deceitful men, people who found their religiosity on the thoughts of their hearts, people who daily feed on falsehood and deception; it is as if they were to live every day as lambs in the midst of a pack of hungry night wolves. Jeremiah offers us an example of this condition of the prophet. His condition is so difficult among his people as to lead him to never prophesy again.

You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; The word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day. I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it. Yes, I hear the whisperings of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!” All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. “Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him.” But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion. O Lord of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause. Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked! Cursed be the day on which I was born! May the day my mother gave me birth never be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, “A child, a son, has been born to you!” filling him with great joy. Let that man be like the cities which the Lord relentlessly overthrew; Let him hear war cries in the morning, battle alarms at noonday, because he did not dispatch me in the womb! Then my mother would have been my grave, her womb confining me forever. Why did I come forth from the womb, to see sorrow and pain, to end my days in shame? (Jer 20,7-18).

The Word of Jeremiah had become so unbearable that to shut him up they let him down into a cistern full of mud and left him there to die. The Lord took pity on him and a person full of kindness and mercy took him out. To Jesus, as opposed to Jeremiah, it took just one testimony about his truth and mission, to be carried out on the edge of the precipice and be thrown down. His Father had compassion on him, because his time had not yet come, and frees him from their hands. Now, Jesus knows what risks and what dangers pave his path.

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.

The life of Jesus is all in the hands of the Father. It is also all and entirely in his will. It is in the hands of the Father, if Jesus is in always in his hands. It is in his hands, if he is in his will. He is in his will if he obeys his every command, if he follows every prompting of the Holy Spirit that is upon Him. If Jesus were not in the Father’s will and therefore in the holy virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance; and he thought of saying and doing everything, so in the end it is the Father that comes to save him, he would tempt the Lord. He would no longer be in the Father, but outside of him and the Father could not save him. We know that He rejected this temptation of Satan.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints kept us in obedience to God.