“And he said, ‘Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, 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. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, 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.’ When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They 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. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.” (Luke 4:24-30 NABRE)
Oftentimes, it is the people who know us the best that are the ones who understand us the least and judge us the most. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is in His own native place, or where He was from and where He grew up. You would think that being in His hometown, the people would embrace His words and teachings more than anyone else who witnessed His ministry. Yet, exactly the opposite happened. These people who knew Jesus the most, did not understand Him and did not believe in Him, so they sought to kill Him.
In our closeness to Jesus and our familiarity with Him, we, too, may lose sight of Who the Lord really is.
We hear of His greatness, His miracles, and teachings so often. We pray to the Lord throughout each and every day, we read the Bible and seek to learn about the faith, and we go to Mass and receive the Sacraments. We can talk about Jesus for hours by pulling from our vast knowledge about Him.
And this is all so great and important!! However, though we believe in Jesus, how much do we really know Him personally and intimately? Similar to the people of the Lord’s native town, we may often be the kind of people who “know” Jesus the best, but truly and intimately know Him the least.
So, we must make sure that we don’t confuse our knowledge of Jesus and belief in Him, as the same thing as having a deep and personal relationship with the Lord. We must take the time to get to know Jesus one on one. We must give Him our hearts and seek to understand His heart better. May we take the time to grow in true love with the Lord by communicating personally and intimately with Him. May we seek to have a deep relationship with the Lord in which we truly know Him.
Amen!!!!!!