Monday – 22^nd Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel - Luke 4:16-30

Coming Home

Mount Precipice, outside Nazareth (Mt Tabor in the distance)

One year ago, Ginger and I moved into our Tennessee house.  It was a long summer of construction, buying furniture and appliances, numerous inspections and installing utilities, not to mention actually moving all our ‘Chicago’ stuff!  But it has been a lot longer before I could call this place ‘home’. 

For many months, I was comparing the “Dakin” house with this one.  Nothing was in the right place; everything was uncomfortable and unfamiliar – not my bed, not my kitchen, not my back yard.  Even when I tried baking some zucchini bread, the routine was out of whack; nothing was where it should be.  All those “Dakin” memories, all those muscle memories of where everything should be!  Stands to reason I guess, with over 50 years in Chicago and 41 years on Dakin!  But for most of this past year, I couldn’t bring myself to call Tennessee home, much less actually use the word ‘home’! 

But gradually things changed.  After returning from a trip to Gatlinburg, my Google map lady telling me ‘Welcome home’!  All the little touches we added to make it feel more ‘homey’. Visting Chicago and walking past the old house and realizing someone else is calling it home and making new memories!  It was a long process, painful at times, but you know what?  Here in these Tennessee hills filled with an abundance of family and friends, of life and color, Ginger and I have come home!   We are home!  And here is where we will make new memories!  And those Dakin neighbors are really still our neighbors.  And our Chicago friends are most definitely still our dear and loved friends!

In today’s Gospel.  Jesus has returned to Nazareth after being baptized by John and praying for 40 days in the desert.  I wonder if He was feeling nostalgic, whether He missed the old family home and His friends!  One thing for certain, He did not get the welcome we always receive when we visit our Chicago, Kateri and SRB friends!  Not even close😊

At this point in the Gospel, Jesus has done nothing – no miracles, no parables, no preaching- nothing at all. And He goes to the synagogue to offer His first sermon.  And He reads from the Prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to let the oppressed go free” It is a prophecy about the Messiah, the long hoped-for Messiah.  And He then tells them clearly that today that prophecy is fulfilled!  I am the Messiah. 

They are enraged and upset.  This can’t be; we know this man!  He is just the son of the carpenter. We saw him playing as a child!  He is just a Jew like any of us.  They become so upset that they drag Him out of the synagogue, out of Nazareth, to the top of Mount Precipice to throw Him off the cliff.  But He passes through their midst and leaves to begin His mission.  Despite their denial, their hatred, and their doubt that He will amount to anything, Jesus begins His Mission.

Returning to one’s former home, moving to a new one, is always gut-wrenching and demands a good dose of patience and acceptance, something the people of Nazareth seem to have in short supply.  And maybe the same is true of us, whenever we journey to a new home, to a new life! 

So maybe today could be the day to spend in gratitude, to thank God for all He has done for us to get us this far in life.  To thank Him for His many blessings that gave us the strength and courage to move on in life. To thank Him for those special people in our lives who love us, encourage us, push us and correct us when we need it, and people who gave us the courage to move forward and succeed.  People like my mom, who celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday!