It is hard...?
Reflections based on the gospel for the fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, year C
St Luke gives us a beautiful narration of the beginning of Jesus' public ministry (Lk 4, 16 - 30), which we cannot find in any other gospels. The final part of this narration really astonishes us where we read, "they rose up, drove him out of the town and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong" (Lk 4,29). Why? Because the listeners could not accept that the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in the person of Jesus. As a result, they tried to kill Jesus or in other words they rejected Him.
There are many similar incidents in the gospels. One of them is in the gospel of St John, chapter 6. In this chapter we see the teaching of Jesus on the Bread of life - The Eucharist (6, 26 - 59) and Jesus says, "I am the bread of life" (6,35). At the end of the teaching, many of his disciples said to him, "this saying is hard, who can accept it"(6,60). When we go a little further in verse 6,66, we read, “as a result of this many of his disciples returned to their former ways of life and no longer accompanied him". This phenomenon of rejecting Jesus is there from the very beginning of Jesus' public ministry. And it continues even today. Those who rejected Jesus, could not accept Jesus as the Savior and the Messiah. They could not understand his teachings properly. As a result, they chose the easiest way- reject Him
We realize
To believe- is hard
To understand- is hard
To love - is hard
To forgive- is hard
To reconcile- is hard
To give witness- is hard
so we may choose the easy way, reject him
and ignore him.
After the above-mentioned incident in John 6, we see the question of Jesus to the twelve. "Jesus then said to the twelve, "do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God" (6, 67-69).
We should all ask ourselves, what is my position, am I standing with the people who reject Jesus or standing with those who profess the divinity of Jesus?