Unstoppable Love

A Reflection on this Friday's Gospel from Matthew 13:54-58 – 2 August 2024

     It must have been hard for our Lord to come home to Nazareth only to have family and friends, people who had known Him for His entire earthly life, scorn Him. Imagine your homecoming after doing something truly remarkable, only to be dismissed out of hand because you come from the wrong family or profess an uncomfortable truth. It must hurt the Lord no less today as the world takes offense at He who gave His life to save it. (John 3:17)

    St Matthew records that though the people of Nazareth were astonished at Jesus’ wisdom and the great miracles worked elsewhere, they allowed evil and sin to darken their minds with jealousy and pride. Instead of looking to Jesus with love and faith for what He professed and did, “they took offense at him.” (Matthew 13:57 NRSVCE)

    The Greek word translated as “offense” in the Gospel is skandalizō (σκανδαλίζω). It is where we get our English word, scandal. The people of Nazareth did not simply dismiss Jesus as inconsequential but, viewed Him with contempt. They are scandalized and ashamed of Him, a stumbling block to their “good” name. He is without honor. He is, as St Simeon predicted, “a sign that will be contradicted … so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34–35 NRSVCE)

     The rejection of our Lord in Nazareth is a microcosm of the crowds that later called for His crucifixion and of the open hostility to Christ, and His body, the Church, which persists to this day. Just consider the mockery of the “Last Supper” on full display at the opening of the 2024 Olympic games in Paris. Why is it OK to ridicule Christianity? The answer: the world recognizes truth when it sees it and goes on the attack. How many still take “offense at Him.”

     Despite the rejection of our Lord’s message of love for God and neighbor, and the miracles the Lord has worked over the centuries since He stood amid those that should have loved Him most in Nazareth, Christ never ever tires of reaching out. Why? Jesus Christ, the pierced One who suffered and died for love, always persists in searching for us, forgiving us, loving us. God cannot help Himself. Love never stops!

     Importantly, God does not love us because we love Him. God does not need our love. He created all from nothing, ex nihilo. He loves us first. (1 John 4:19) God is unstoppable love in action. There is a mystery to the persistent evil and the darkness of sin, the mysterium iniquitatis, which works through humanity to extinguish love. Yet, darkness can never prevail against the unstoppable splendor of divine light. As St John writes, “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5 NRSVCE) Nothing can extinguish the light of pure love.

     How often have you felt like Jesus standing rejected amid family and friends who should clearly see the Lord’s wisdom and how He has worked miracles in your life? Perhaps they have taken offense and see your faith as scandalous, an obstacle to any relationship. Hurt and frustrated, we can be tempted to walk away and disassociate ourselves from those who reject us and the one we love. Yet, we cannot! Jesus’ love is unstoppable, and so must ours be. Filled with the abundant love poured into us in the Eucharist, we too cannot allow our love to fail. Filled with God’s unstoppable love we must remain beacons of God’s light, shining into the darkness.

     Today we celebrate the memorial of St Eusebius of Vercelli, a staunch defender of the Church against the Arian heresy. At the Council of Milan, contrary to the emperor’s command, he slapped the Nicene Creed down on the table and demanded that everyone sign it, condemning Arius. For this he was banished. His bravery convinced others to openly reject the heresy and protect orthodoxy. His contemporary, St Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, wrote the first History of the Church

“to record the ways and the times in which the divine word has been attacked by the Gentiles, and to describe the character of the great men who in various periods have defended it in the face of blood and of tortures … and finally, the mercy and benevolence which Our Savior has afforded all.” (St Eusebius as quoted in General Audiences of Benedict XVI 13 June 2007)

     St Eusebius of Vercelli was one of these “great men.” Love never stops.

     May our names be recorded in the heavenly Book of Life, the only history book that matters, as those who through love are sure beacons of God’s unstoppable love. May our lives be the font through which God’s light, wisdom, and miracles flow.

St Eusebius Pray for Us!

Endnotes:

Benedict XVI. General Audiences of Benedict XVI (English). Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013. Print.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (NRSVCE). Washington, DC: National Council of Churches of Christ, 1993. Print.