What a blessing! Imagine the blessing of living some thirty years in the same little village as Jesus. Maybe you and He escape the heat of summer as children by wading into the cool refreshing waters of the Sea of Galilee. Or He brings you into the workshop where you watch Joseph plaining a sturdy, sweet-scented, cedar board to be used for a family dining table.
Perhaps He even brings you into their humble home on the day Lady Mary, his Mother, is removing from the stone oven, golden brown loaves of fresh baked bread for the meal. Who could resist falling in love with such a blessed family?
Have you ever rejected God’s blessing? The catechism reminds us "From the beginning until the end of time, the whole of God’s work is a blessing."
"The Lord be with you" is a blessing. When the priest says, "This is my body; this is my blood," this is such a profound blessing that the humble wheat wafer becomes the body and blood of our great high Lord and God. Now that’s a blessing!
At the end of Mass, the priest offers the sacred apostolic blessing in the name of the Trinity, before sending us off to live the life of Christ. "May Almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen." This final blessing makes God’s grace rush upon us and lift up to the high places of God’s goodness and grace.
Today’s Gospel describes how, on a Sabbath, standing before the fellow-townsmen in the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus read and interpreted what Isaiah had prophesied about the Messiah and the Messianic mission. Jesus claimed to be the One sent "to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberation to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom for the oppressed." Declaring, to the amazement and disbelief of fellow-townspeople, that God was reaching out to them right at that moment "in your hearing." Jesus is offering them the greatest blessing of all, Himself as Savior.
Let us not, like the people in Jesus’ hometown, reject the blessings of God in our midst for any reason. We reject God when we refuse to bless others with the respect and love God has generously bestowed on us. We reject God when we ignore or refuse to listen to our family members with the ear of our hearts.
But we bless God and others when we welcome his Son and the Mother of His Son into our family homes, into our hearts, and listen with love to every word of blessing He utters. Amen.
- Father Willy's inspirational homily was recorded live this morning during Mass at the Father Peyton Center. Please view the video on our Facebook page. (You don't need a Facebook account to view.)
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