Vatican
City, 3 February 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father's Sunday meditation
before praying the Angelus today, was dedicated to the Gospel of St.
Luke, which narrates Jesus' return to the synagogue in Nazareth
after a period of absence. Jesus reads a prophecy from Isaiah
regarding the Messiah and makes it known that it is referring to Him,
which provokes confusion among his countrymen who, on the one hand
admire Him but on the other hand ask: "Isn’t this the son of
Joseph?" or rather, "what aspirations could a carpenter
from Nazareth have?"
"Recognizing
this rejection, which confirms the proverb 'no prophet is accepted in
his own land', Jesus addresses the people in the synagogue with words
that sound like a provocation. He cites two miracles performed in
favour of the non-Isrealites by the great prophets Elijah and Elisha
in order to demonstrate that, at times, there is more faith outside
of Israel. At that point, the reaction is unanimous, everyone gets up
and they throw Him out, even trying to throw Him off a precipice.
With tremendous calm, however, He walks through the midst of the
enraged crowd and takes his leave. At this point it is natural to
ask: Why did Jesus want to provoke this rupture? At the beginning,
the people admired Him and perhaps He could have gotten certain
agreement … but this is precisely the point. Jesus did not come to
seek the agreement of humanity―as He
will tell Pilate in the end―but to 'to testify to the truth'. The
true prophet does not obey anyone but God, and places himself at the
service of truth, ready to pay in person. It is true that Jesus is
the prophet of love, but love has its own truth. Better yet, love and
truth are two names for the same reality, the two names of God. These
words of St. Paul echo in today's liturgy: 'love... is not pompous,
... it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it
does not brood over injury,e 6it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but
rejoices with the truth.' Believing in God means renouncing our own
prejudices and welcoming the concrete face in which He reveals
himself: the man Jesus of Nazareth. This path also leads to
recognizing and serving him in others."
"Mary's
attitude in all this is enlightening. Who more than she was familiar
with Jesus' humanity? But she was never scandalized like her fellow
Nazarenes. She safeguarded the mystery in her heart and always know
how to welcome him again and anew in her faith journey, up to the
night of the Cross and the full light of the Resurrection."
After
praying the Angelus, the Holy Father noted that this first Sunday in
February marks the Day for Life in Italy. "I join with all the
Italian bishops," he said, "whose messages invite us to
invest in life and in the family as an effective answer to the
current crisis. I greet the Movement for Life and wish them success
in their initiative called 'One of Us', to make Europe more and more
a place in which the dignity of each human being is protected. I also
greet the representatives of the Faculty of Medicine from the
University of Rome, particularly the professors of obstetrics and
gynaecology, … and encourage them to train health care workers in
the culture of life."
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