DAILY GRACE
September 2, 2020, Wednesday of the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time
Scripture: Luke 4:38-44
After leaving the synagogue he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.
As the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them. Demons also came out of many, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Messiah.
At daybreak he departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowds were looking for him; and when they reached him, they wanted to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.’ So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation:
“‘And the crowds were looking for him . . . .”
Today they’re looking for Jesus, to try “to prevent him from leaving them.” A dozen verses earlier the crowd was so incensed that they were going to throw him off a cliff. That was Nazareth, but now Jesus is back in Capernaum and they’re hanging on his every word. Tomorrow he will overwhelm Peter, who will ask Jesus to leave him because Jesus is out of his league and he knows it. On Friday the Pharisees are going to start sticking Jesus under the microscope. They love him. They hate him. . . And there Jesus is in the midst of contradictory expectations and reactions, holding fast to the Father’s plan of revealing the good news of the Kingdom of God.
Where am in this Gospel narrative? I, too, come looking for Jesus. Here I am making space to meditate on his Word given to us in the scripture. What am I really doing here? What do I desire from this encounter? The crowd in today’s Gospel go looking for Jesus to prevent him from leaving their town. He has cured their sick and expelled demons. Who wouldn’t want to have someone like that around? Wouldn’t it be great if Jesus were around now and could simply heal anyone with COVID-19?
The problem then was that the good people of Capernaum were just looking for a village miracle worker. We can fall into the same trap, just wanting him for the miracles he can perform for us. But Jesus knew that his vocation was to be the Savior of the whole world. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus never loses track of his primary vocation. He is the Son of the Father — he is the revelation of God’s goodness and truth in the world. He is self-giving Love that heals and restores fallen humanity into relationship with God, even at the price of his own blood. This was the Father’s plan, and the Son’s plan, and the Spirit’s plan all along. It was why he came looking for us.
Prayer
Here I am, Lord. I am looking for you because you came looking for me first. Lord, open my heart and my eyes to see my vocation in life from your perspective. Purify my understanding of our relationship. Throughout the Gospels you followed the Father’s plan for you in the midst of wildly divergent reactions and expectations from those around you. I want to be like that. I want to see my part in your loving plan of salvation, and to stay true to it in the midst of current joys and challenges.
Contemplation
Why do I go looking for Jesus?