Fr. Cipolla: Meditation for the Monday after the Third Sunday of Lent

Meditation at Mass for the Monday after the Third Sunday of Lent

by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla

The Gospel for this Mass is Jesus’ first visit to his home town of Nazareth after the
beginning of his preaching and teaching ministry. He has already preached in the
region of Galilee, but now he has come to the synagogue in Nazareth on Saturday
and is asked to do the reading, which happens to be from the prophet Isaiah
predicting the coming of the Messiah. And then he preaches to the people. The
reaction of the people is that they like what he is saying and also how he is saying
it. And they say to themselves: Isn’t this Joseph’s son? We know his whole
family. And so they are happy that a home town boy has made good. They did not
listen to the words of Isaiah except as a reading from one of the prophets. They
were religious Jews attending the service in the synagogue, part of what they did as
Jews. And because they did this, they thought of themselves as good God-fearing
people and were pleased that this hometown man had the gift of giving a good
sermon, good because it made them feel good about themselves. They had heard
about Jesus as a preacher, teacher and healer in the surrounding towns, and now
they hoped that he would perform some miracles for them.
And then Jesus takes on the role of the prophet, and he points out that the great
prophets like Elijah and Elisha performed their greatest miracles of healing and
compassion for non-Jews, for these prophets could not find Jews who really
believed. And in effect, what Jesus was telling these people: “You came here to
hear me read well and to speak well, but you will not believe who I really am,
because you use religion to comfort yourselves that you are the chosen people and
therefore you have an automatic “in” with God, and there is nothing to worry about
as to how you live your lives.” This makes the congregation very angry, and they threaten to throw Jesus over a cliff near the synagogue. But Jesus escapes through the crowd.

What does this have to do with us here this evening? We have come to this Mass,
which is what Catholics do. Some are here because the Mass is offered in the
Traditional Form. And we come here in the season of Lent. This may be part of
your Lenten rule. So many Catholics treat Lent as the pre-Easter season when we
are asked to do acts of penance, like giving up certain foods, not eating meat on
Fridays, maybe do some Bible reading, or remember people who are ill and
perhaps visiting them. And all this is good, but it can be merely following the
religious rules, which expire once Easter comes. It has nothing to do with really changing one’s life. More and more Catholics go to Mass to hear a good sermon and then to receive Holy Communion. Even if the sermon is not good, at least you get something out of Mass, you get Holy Communion. What would it take to shock people in the congregation who think they have their faith all figured out and will automatically go to heaven when they die because they are practicing Catholics? Who would dare to tell them that that might not be true? That person might be thrown off a cliff– or even crucified.