Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Luke 4: 16-30
September 01, 2025 | Monday

Today’s Gospel

When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him the book of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus then unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me, to bring good news to the poor; to proclaim liberty to captives; and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed; and to announce the Lord’s year of mercy.”

Jesus then rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he said to them, “Today, these prophetic words come true, even as you listen.”

All agreed with him, and were lost in wonder, while he spoke of the grace of God. Nevertheless, they asked, “Who is this but Joseph’s Son?” So he said, “Doubtless you will quote me the saying: Doctor, heal yourself! Do here, in your town, what they say you did in Capernaum.” Jesus added, “No prophet is honored in his own country. Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens withheld rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land. Yet, Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet; and no one was healed except Naaman, the Syrian.”

On hearing these words, the whole assembly became indignant. They rose up and brought him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built, intending to throw him down the cliff. But he passed through their midst and went his way.

Today’s Reflection

The fulfillment of the Scripture is in Jesus –a fact that the people familiar with him could not readily accept. Their familiarity with him blinded them from seeing this. Instead of seeing the man whose coming brought about the fulfillment of Scripture, they see only the carpenter’s son. This happens to us, as well. Our overfamiliarity with the Lord sometimes desensitizes us from the majestic presence of God in our midst. In fact, it is observable that many people take the presence of Jesus in the tabernacle for granted, not even showing reverence anymore but treating it as a mere cabinet with something inside. On other occasions, we domesticate the Lord to the point that we make him our servant and not the other way around. In his greatness, he chose to make his habitation in man such that our bodies became his temple. We are not just his own country but his home and temple. It is our prayer that we become true disciples who honor the Lord, in whose person Scripture is fulfilled. Instead of becoming like the assembly in the synagogue who became indignant of Jesus, who rose and brought our Savior to the cliff to throw him, may we become on fire with the zeal to proclaim him to the world, rise up, and go the edge of the world, not to throw the Lord over, but to make his name and message known to all.

/Vulnerasti, 2025