HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT, LITURGICAL CALENDAR YEAR B
HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT, LITURGICAL CALENDAR YEAR B
THEME: No prophet is ever accepted in his own country.
BY: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA
READINGS OF THE DAY
2 Kings 5:1-15
Psalm 41:2-3,42:3-4
Luke 4:24-30
LITURGICAL COLOUR
PURPLE/VIOLET
INTRODUCTION
Good morning my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate Monday of the Third Week of Lent, Liturgical Calendar Year B.
ALSO RECOMMENDED: MONDAY HOMILY FOR 2ND WEEK OF LENT / YEAR B
FROM OUR FIRST READING
In our first reading today, we hear about the healing of Naaman. Dear friends, Naaman’s cleansing in the Jordan River foreshadows the great mystery of the Apostles being sent out by Jesus to baptize the Gentiles. All nations are called to gather into God’s family, not through the circumcision of the flesh, but through faith in the one, true God and through the sacrament of Baptism. When Naaman is given instructions to wash in the Jordan River seven times, he displays his ignorance of the importance of the Jordan River and its place in salvation history. It was the river the people of Israel crossed over into the promised land of Canaan (Joshua 3:17). It will be same river of John the Baptist’s ministry and where Jesus is proclaimed the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:28-29). We learn from this that God’s action in history and in the Sacraments is both simple and profound. In the New Covenant, the simple action of immersion in and cleansing with water is now elevated to the Sacrament of Baptism, by which we are purified from the stain of original sin and made sons and daughters of God.
FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
In this morning’s gospel reading, the people of Jesus’ home town, Nazareth, were enraged at Jesus. In their anger, they tried to hurl Jesus down from the brow of the hill on which their town was built. We are given a very clear image of just how destructive anger can be. We know from our own experience that anger, especially extreme anger or rage, can take us to places we would never normally go. What was it about Jesus that left his townspeople so enraged? He was challenging their rather parochial mindset and their narrow understanding of God. Jesus was proclaiming a God who was concerned for those in need, whether they were to be found within Israel or among the traditional enemies of Israel.
CONCLUSION
Jesus was declaring that God did not just belong to the people of Israel, much less to the people of Nazareth. The God who was the Father of Jesus was had a much broader horizon than the God of the people of Nazareth. God is always bigger than our conception of him. Whenever we make God in our own image, whenever we believe in a God who reflects our own prejudices and blindness, it can lead to violent and destructive behaviour, as we know all too well today. On our pilgrimage of faith we need to keep asking Jesus to open our hearts and minds more fully to the living and true God whom he reveals to us by his words and his deeds, by his death and his resurrection.
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