LENT SERIES DAY 20: MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT (What is Fasting and Why Fast?) (https://youtu.be/ef0qq1SOEQ0)
God Can Use Anyone of Us
Brethren, when you are doing well, and you have won the approval of many people, the expectation is that the people closest to you, your kith and kin, will be among them. According to Jesus in today’s Gospel, that expectation is not always met. As a matter of fact, your own people can be offended by your very success. More often than not, it is because they know you only too well. As the saying goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” The lack of recognition by his people did not deter Jesus from carrying on with his mission of salvation. The lack of recognition by people should not stop a disciple of Jesus from doing whatever good he has been sent to do.
Jesus holds that a prophet is not accepted in his own country. The Jews were the chosen people who received the gospel first, but they could not believe in it, even the Messiah and the prophet par excellence who was amidst them, they could not believe in him but instead sought to kill him. It is instead the gentiles who received him, just as Namaan was healed in Israel while he was not an Israelite. The Jews didn't accept Jesus, the bringer of good news, because they saw him as the boy who grew with them, knowing his father, mother and siblings.
Brethren, sometimes we can also tend to be like that, seeing nothing good from the close people whom we know very well and are used to them, because we know their weakness and strengths. Furthermore, we as Christians, have received the gospel and know what it demands of us and its necessity for salvation. It is absurd if we don't live according to it or ignore it. The kingdom of God will be taken from us and given to those ignorant of the gospel. We have been given much and much is demanded from us. Lent is the time to repent and accept the Gospel and live to it so that we can inherit the kingdom of God.
Therefore, today's Gospel gives a message that we should see God in everyone. How many times have we despised the people whom we know from A to Z and are close to us, by thinking that they cannot be prophets? Jesus could not be accepted by his own people because they knew that he was just the son of Joseph the carpenter, and nothing good can come from him. But Jesus shows them and to us today that even our closest people can be prophets. People at first admired Jesus for his gracious words, but when they realized that he was challenging and shaking the very roots of their habits, beliefs and traditions, they plotted to do away with him as he was inconvenient to the comfortable life. Do you reject somebody's message because he or she is close to you or because his or her words have shaken your unappealing behaviours both to God and to your fellow people?
Reflect today on how ready you are to accept and uplift the talents of the people close to you and the ones you know well. Are you ready to use the chance of hearing the gospel and knowing it to inspire many to believe in it or you reject it as the Jews rejected Jesus? Pray for the Holy Spirit to show you the right way.
Let us Pray.
Enlighten our minds and hearts Lord to accept you and all your servants who speak in your name either from far or from home. Inspire us more to see good in everyone and accept and support them. Amen.
Be blessed.
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