In the Gospel reading from Luke, Jesus is preaching to a crowd in the synagogue proclaiming the good news to those who are oppressed and poor. It is through these words of proclamation that He experiences how it feels to be doubted and rejected by His own people in his native land.
An important quote from the passage that relates to my own life is when Jesus exclaims “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place”. This is significant in my life because there are many times in my life when my faith in God was tested by “friends” in high school (my “native land”) that did not accept me for who I really was. What I thought was going to be my friend group had pushed me away unintentionally because of my faith. However, I kept my faith in God during these trying times and eventually found new groups of friends that accepted me for who I am. It is through these people that I truly felt accepted and cleansed from all the hurt my previous group of friends did to me.
An important aspect to take away from this reading is to stand firm in the faith even when people give you difficult obstacles that seem hard to overcome. It is through your faith that we can experience true joy and happiness like Naaman the Syrian, a man that Jesus alludes to in the reading. What it calls us to do as Christians is to not look down upon people that oppress us, but instead realize how much stronger they make us as defenders of our faith. Embracing their fury with a response to God’s love is our duty as Christians.
