READINGS FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C, SUNDAY 30TH JANUARY 2022.

FIRST READING: JEREMIAH 1:4-5, 17-19

PSALM: 70

SECOND READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 12:31, 13:13

GOSPEL: LUKE 4:21-30

REFLECTION BY FR. CORNELIUS NWAOGWUGWU, CM

LOVE AND VALUE WHAT YOU HAVE

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

God is Love. His love is limitless. God is not limited. God’s salvation is not reserved for a few limited people. Salvation is a precious gift from God to humanity which we must love and value. Jesus revealed that “God has no favourites”. The truth is that “God knows no boundaries”. Jesus refused to share his people’s parochial idea of salvation.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus said: “ There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the Prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.” (Luke 4:25-27).

In this Gospel passage above, Jesus demonstrates that God’s ways are not our ways. Jesus’ people were blind to accept this inclusive idea of God’s salvation. They were enraged. They rejected Jesus and his message. Jesus rightly says: “I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.”

There are big questions for us today to ponder: Are we ready to accept Jesus and His message of salvation or to reject him? Are we ready to love and value what we have? Are we ready to be committed to the truth? We do not know the value of what we have until we lose it.

In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus taught us to love and value what we have. We are urged to be charitable with words, respectful, kind and truthful in speaking out our Christian convictions and values within our faith community.

In line with this teaching, St. Paul in today’s Second Reading urges us to exercise our gifts with love. According to Paul, “Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.”
(1 Corinthians13:4-7).

We pray for the willingness and courage to accept Jesus as our Saviour and value His message of salvation and truth which is addressed to all of us today as always. Amen.

Fr. Cornelius Nwaogwugwu, CM