Jesus speaks in the synagogue a fulfillment of passage which He draws from the Scripture

January 31, 2016

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Saints of the Day: Memorial Saint John Bosco, Priest (1815-1888) , Saint marcella, Widow (325-410)

Reading 1 

Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19

4The word of the LORD came to me, saying: 5Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.[1]

17But do you gird your loins; stand up and tell them all that I command you.

Be not crushed on their account, as though I would leave you crushed before them; 18for it is I this day who have made you a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of brass, against the whole land: against Judah’s kings and princes, against its priests and people.19They will fight against you but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15-17

R. (compare with 15ab)  I will sing of your salvation.

1In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. 2In your justice rescue me, and deliver me; incline your ear to me, and save me.

R. I will sing of your salvation.

3Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety, for you are my rock and my fortress. 4O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked. 

R. I will sing of your salvation.

5For you are my hope, O Lord; my trust, O God, from my youth. 6On you I depend from birth; from my mother’s womb you are my strength.

R. I will sing of your salvation.

15My mouth shall declare your justice, day by day your salvation. 17O God, you have taught me from my youth, and till the present 16I proclaim your wondrous deeds.

R. I will sing of your salvation.

Reading 2

1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:13

12:31Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way. 

13:1If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.[2]13:2And if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

13:3If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast,

but do not have love, I gain nothing.[3]

13:4Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, It is not inflated, it is not rude,[4] 13:5it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, 13:6it does not rejoice over wrongdoing

but rejoices with the truth. 13:7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 13:8Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease;[5] if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. 

13:9For we know partially and we prophesy partially, 13:10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 13:11When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,

think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. 13:12At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 

13:13So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.[6]

OR 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

4Brothers and sisters: Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated,[7] 5it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests,

it is not quick-tempered, 6it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures all things.

8Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.[8]

9For we know partially and we prophesy partially, 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 

13So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.[9]

Alleluia Luke 4:18

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The Lord sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,

to proclaim liberty to captives.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel 

Luke 4;21-30

21Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”[10] 22And all spoke highly of Him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His mouth. They also asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”

23He said to them, “Surely you will quote Me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.”[11]

24And He said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 25Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.[12]

26It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.[13] 27Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

28When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. 29They rose up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl Him down headlong. 30But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.

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Notes on Readings:

[1] Jeremiah 1:5 - Jeremiah was destined to the office of prophet before his birth; compare with Isaiah 49:1, 5; Luke 1:15; Galatians 1:15, 16. I knew you: I loved you and chose you. I dedicated you: I set you apart to be a prophet. Some Fathers and later theologians understand this to mean that Jeremiah was freed from original sin before his birth. The context does not justify this conclusion. The nations: the pagan neighbors of Judah, besides the great world powers-Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt-intimately associated with Judah's destiny.

[2] 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 - This chapter involves a shift of perspective and a new point. All or part of the material may once have been an independent piece in the style of Hellenistic eulogies of virtues, but it is now integrated, by editing, into the context of 1 Corinthians 12:14 (compare with the reference to tongues and prophecy) and into the letter as a whole (compare with the references to knowledge and to behavior). The function of 1 Corinthians 13 within the discussion of spiritual gifts is to relativize all the charisms by contrasting them with the more basic, pervasive, and enduring value that gives them their purpose and their effectiveness. The rhetoric of this chapter is striking.

[3] 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 - An inventory of gifts, arranged in careful gradation: neither tongues (on the lowest rung), nor prophecy, knowledge, or faith, nor even self-sacrifice has value unless informed by love.

[4] 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - This paragraph is developed by personification and enumeration, defining love by what it does or does not do. The Greek contains fifteen verbs; it is natural to translate many of them by adjectives in English.

[5] 1 Corinthians 13:8-13- The final paragraph announces its topic, Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8), then develops the permanence of love in contrast to the charisms (1 Corinthians 13:9-12), and finally asserts love's superiority even over the other "theological virtues" (1 Corinthians 13:13).

[6] 1 Corinthians 13:13 - In speaking of love, Paul is led by spontaneous association to mention faith and hope as well. They are already a well-known triad (compare with 1 Thessalonians 1:3), three interrelated (compare with 1 Corinthians 13:7) features of Christian life, more fundamental than any particular charism. The greatest . . . is love: love is operative even within the other members of the triad (7), so that it has a certain primacy among them. Or, if the perspective is temporal, love will remain (compare with "never fails," 1 Corinthians 13:8) even when faith has yielded to sight and hope to possession.

[7] 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - This paragraph is developed by personification and enumeration, defining love by what it does or does not do. The Greek contains fifteen verbs; it is natural to translate many of them by adjectives in English.

[8] 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 - The final paragraph announces its topic, Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8), then develops the permanence of love in contrast to the charisms (1 Corinthains 13:9-12), and finally asserts love's superiority even over the other "theological virtues" (1 Corinthains 13:13).

[9] 1 Corinthians 13:13 - In speaking of love, Paul is led by spontaneous association to mention faith and hope as well. They are already a well-known triad ( compare with 1 Thesalonians 1:3), three interrelated (compare with 1 Corinthians 13:7) features of Christian life, more fundamental than any particular charism. The greatest . . . is love: love is operative even within the other members of the triad (7), so that it has a certain primacy among them. Or, if the perspective is temporal, love will remain (compare with "never fails," (1 Corinthains 13:8) even when faith has yielded to sight and hope to possession.

[10] Luke 4:21 - Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing: this sermon inaugurates the time of fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Luke presents the ministry of Jesus as fulfilling Old Testament hopes and expectations (Luke 7;22); for Luke, even Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection are done in fulfillment of the scriptures (Luke 24:25-27, 44-46; Acts 3:18).

[11] Luke 4:23 - The things that we heard were done in Capernaum: Luke's source for this incident reveals an awareness of an earlier ministry of Jesus in Capernaum that Luke has not yet made use of because of His transposition of this Nazareth episode to the beginning of Jesus' Galilean ministry. It is possible that by use of the future tense you will quote me . . . , Jesus is being portrayed as a prophet.

[12] Luke 4:25-26 - The references to Elijah and Elisha serve several purposes in this episode: they emphasize Luke's portrait of Jesus as a prophet like Elijah and Elisha; they help to explain why the initial admiration of the people turns to rejection; and they provide the scriptural justification for the future Christian mission to the Gentiles.

[13] Luke 4:26 - A widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon: like Naaman the Syrian in Luke 4:27, a non-Israelite becomes the object of the prophet's ministry.