DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Thursday, June 28, 2018

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.  But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. – Luke 4:28-30

I am intrigued by the drama of this encounter between Christ and his hometown synagogue.

I dare raise a paraphrase by way of parallel.  All the church members were furious at what the preacher said.  The committee met and said, “We must fire this pastor for his speaks most troubling words.  How dare he question our ways!”  But the pastor moved on from there and continued being faithful to his Lord.

Those who were about toss this young rabbi over the cliff, these were church-going people.  They probably attended classes on the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.  They all went through the rite of passage into adulthood.  They were Jews of a Jewish nation.  They were people who prayed.  They were people who sang the old hymns.  They were people who kept the rules their forefathers wrote.  And they dragged a rabbi to the edge of a cliff.  Synagogue people sometimes did unholy acts in unholy ways in a false delusion that they were protecting the ways of God.  And church-going people sometimes do unholy acts in unholy ways in a false delusion that they are protecting the ways of God.

But it is the manner of Christ in this moment of crisis that models for me the Christ-incarnated way we are to carry ourselves and to advance the work of God’s Realm of a More Perfect Love.  “He walked through the crowd and went on His way.”  No kowtowing to the rage of the crowd, no surrendering to the status quo, no fighting back using their unholy ways … no, He simply carried Himself with dignity and walked on in His pilgrimage of faith.

I seek to face the judgmental ones with rage in their voices and murderous intentions in their hearts … with nobility of soul, without resorting to the ways and will of the crowd, and continue in the authentic ways of the Lord.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz