Gospel Meditation

A young couple in my parish told me they were expecting their second child, a baby boy. I knew that their five-year old only child Emma had been desperately wanting to be a big sister for years, so I said, “Emma must have been so happy when you told her the news.” “Actually,” they said, “she burst into tears. She wanted a baby sister!” How often in life God wonderfully fulfills our desires and we are sad because we don’t approve of the way he does it. We want to control the gift and the delivery method. 
The same thing occurs in the Gospel this week when Jesus announces in his hometown that the promise of an Anointed One bringing glad tidings to the poor is “fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). After a moment of elation, his fellow townsfolk realize this man is the way God is fulfilling his promises, and they erupt into a violent outburst. So Jesus departs. How sad for them. 
Every single Sunday at Mass, including this one, some version of this happens to many of us. God’s word announces the fulfillment of God’s promises in Christ, and we easily overlook or disdain it. His way is almost never according to our narrow expectations. What’s required of us is to set these aside, and to embrace a new openness to God’s gifts, no matter how he wishes to give them. God is fulfilling his promises the way He likes — why be sad? ©LPi