The Rejection of the Word

Reflection on Today's Readings and Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Friday, 17th Week in Ordinary Time Year II, 31st July, 2020 Texts: Jer. 26:1-9; Ps. 69:5,8-10,14; Matt. 13:54-58 Being a servant of the word of God comes with his own challenges. The servant of the word often becomes a person of contention either because of his background or the word itself. Jeremiah, in today's first reading, becomes a man of contention because of the word. It is written thus: "Then the priests and prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, 'You shall die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, 'This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitants?'" They take him on at his word and resented him because of the word. Today's gospel shows Jesus Christ being rejected because of his background. They said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the Carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not all his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?" In the case of Jesus Christ they acknowledged the graciousness of his words and works, but he was rejected because of his family background. Some of us are like the people of the time of Jeremiah, we have a kind of resentful attitude towards the word of God because it reprimands us. Perhaps, because it exposes our evil deeds and reminds us that we are evil. Everyone wants to be seen as good, but when the word reminds us that we are evil, it hurts us and we flare up. Sometimes, the bearer of the word suffers attack because of this. A good example of this is Jeremiah. Some of us are like the people of Jesus' country, because of our familiarity with the bearer of the word, we are distracted by questioning the source of his authority. Some of us may even dwell on the past of the servant of the word. We may say, 'was it not that dull boy that could not speak in our class that time? We will not pay attention to the word so as to understand it but concern ourselves with irrelevant questions about the servant of the word. Since we do not understand it, faith does not grow, for faith comes by hearing the word (Rom. 10:17). We are reminded to stop judging and sizing the servants of the word, but pay attention to the gracious words and works God is using them to accomplish. St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose memorial is today, asked for the kind of books he loved reading but was given 'The Life of Christ' and 'The Flower of the Saints', he did not question the background of the book nor their contents. Reading the books, St. Ignatius got his conversion. Today he has joined the league of saints he read about and also Jesus Christ whom he encountered in the books.

Lord Jesus, help to be able to bear the truth when we are told and may we never be distracted by our bias. Amen.

 Fr. Andrew Olowomuke