Joining The Outcast Jesus

A rainy evening recording of Holy Mass at the Chapel of St Luke just after a small earthquake hit some of the community in the USA. How often do our plans suddenly change because of outside occurrences? And how often do people suddenly turn on us when we do not toe the line anymore? The White Robed Monks of St Benedict believe that Jesus never said no to anyone and try to focus on the lessons that Christ came to teach humanity - that of unconditional love.

Transcript

The Lord be with you.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.

Glory to you,

O Lord.

Jesus began speaking in the synagogue,

Saying,

Today,

The scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.

And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

They also asked,

Isn't this the son of Joseph?

He said to them,

Surely you will quote me this prophet,

Physician,

Cure yourself,

And say,

Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.

And he said,

Amen.

I say to you,

No prophet is accepted in his own native place.

Indeed,

I tell you,

There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.

It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,

But only to a widow in Zarephath in this land of Sidon.

Again,

There were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elijah the prophet,

Yet none of them was cleansed,

But only Naaman the Syrian.

When the people in the synagogue heard this,

They were all filled with fury.

They rose up,

Drove him out of the town,

And led him to the brow of the hill on which the town had been built to hurl him down headlong.

But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you,

Lord Jesus Christ.

And all of a sudden,

Life changes.

In praying the rosary earlier on,

I mentioned that I had already listened to Bishop Oliver deliver a homily on this reading and that with his gracious permission,

I sometimes take some of the concepts and I share them in our evening here.

And then in earthquake hits,

And everything is different.

It's interesting how what we sometimes think is going to happen doesn't happen.

No matter how much we prepare,

No matter how much we plan for an event,

And how meticulous we are,

Tonight,

Today,

Is yet again a reminder of that for us.

And as I said,

I sincerely hope and pray that all of you and your loved ones are okay.

Jesus kind of the exception to the rule when it comes to what to expect from people,

Because he knew as God,

What was going to happen because it had already happened to God.

Time does not exist as it does for us.

And so we see that in this story,

People change,

People go from adoring Christ,

Adoring God,

Adoring Jesus,

And expecting miracles,

Because you've done it before.

You've done it for other people.

Why not do it for us?

Why not do it for your home area?

And just like that,

When Jesus tells them that,

I know that you are going to expect things from me,

They turn on him.

So much so that they want to throw him off a cliff.

Now it's interesting to note,

Very important to note,

That he was invited to speak at the synagogue.

He wasn't out having drinks with his buddies in a bar where they got so smashing drunk that they lost their tempers and then they wanted to kill him.

No,

No,

No.

Jesus was reading the law,

The word of the Lord,

And sharing the message of God to these people.

These people who seem to be God-fearing,

How often do we see it these days,

Unfortunately,

That it's just a facade and that we are all expected to fall in line and to say certain things in certain ways and to believe certain things without questioning and to present ourselves in certain ways and dare you be different.

Then suddenly the nicest,

Nicest,

Nicest people turn on you and in the name of conformity,

Judge you.

In the name of conformity,

Ostracize you and you become pretty much a leper in the community.

Well,

My dear,

Dear friends,

Welcome to the life of Jesus Christ.

It's so often easy for us to stand here and preach about the love of Christ and everything is beautiful and rosy and just do what Christ wants you to do.

But what is it that Christ wants you to do?

Love.

Not impose your will on somebody else,

Love just that.

Love God and love each other.

Because as much as we want to conform to human rules and norms,

Just like that they change.

Just like that something happens in our lives that changes everything.

How many five-year plans were not completely messed up two years ago when the pandemic started?

How many dreams were not shattered because something in life happened?

The one constant is the love of God.

That is the one thing that we have that will never change because God never changes because God is all.

God was all,

God will be all forever and ever.

And our world might shake.

God is still there,

God is still the same.

God is there with us while our world is shaking and changing.

And I feel like this message is one that you guys might become bored with but God isn't done with this message.

Look at how fickle man is.

Look at how societal norms change to fit a group of people and to fit what we call the evolution of humanity.

God doesn't change,

We change.

And we decide as a race,

As human beings,

Where are we going to change to?

And we don't have to influence millions.

Do we need to influence people?

Of course we do.

There are so many people that are hurting.

And maybe influence is the wrong word.

Inspire?

Would that be maybe a better way to explain how through the way that we live our lives people can see God in us?

People can see the effect of God in our lives?

People can see how we honor God in them through the way that we interact with them?

And hopefully then they start recognizing that that same God that is inside of us is also inside of them,

No matter what they call that God.

No matter what they call God.

Because love transcends all of that.

It is truly for me as if we are speaking different dialects of the same language,

The language of love.

And some of us will turn around and say,

You're not speaking English.

Because the English you speak is something that I struggle to understand.

So it can't be English,

It can't be right.

Even in Britain there are so many expressions and dialects of English where it comes from that people sometimes struggle to understand each other.

But when we start realizing that we are all speaking the same language,

Then maybe,

Maybe we can start honoring that.

We can start honoring the fact that we are all born as images,

As creations,

As part of God.

And then if we are different,

It doesn't matter so much.

If people ostracize us,

We can look at them and not pity them,

It's their journey.

But we can recognize that that is the journey that God has them walking.

And that our journey and our mission is still the same,

Is to love them.

Very difficult.

It's easy to stay in here and say,

Love everybody.

Love the person that's hurt you,

Love the person that kicked you out of their house.

That is the ultimate.

And it's not something that I say lightly,

It's not something that will just happen,

But it is something that we can strive towards.

Because let us just always,

Always,

Always remember the words that Christ said here in the Gospel of Luke,

Where he said that he will not be known in his own country,

A prophet will not be known in his own country.

And then when we feel alone and that society has let us down and that we are not part of anything,

Remember these words,

Welcome to the life of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Reviews

Thank you for the reminder of this lesson. Love Jesus. Be like Jesus. Love others. 🙏❤️

My gosh, the last line hit me exactly where I am and what I needed to hear. Bless you 🙏 ♥️

Thank you! Wonderful words of comfort-God is our constant! May people be drawn to Him through us.

The one constant is the love of God. Beautiful - thank you 🙏🕊️

Powerful 🙏

Fr Carel,
What a beautiful message. Thank you for this. I so enjoy listening to you speak/preach. I love the way you start with a passage from the Bible and relate the words to every day human lives, in a way that is cohesive and easily understood. I have them on a play list and listen to them repeatedly and each time I am able to pick out something new. With gratitude, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Erika

Amen 🙏🏼

“Welcome to the Life of Jesus”, I love this, your rosary & Mass today, & Your ‘beingness’ for our Lord’s word.😊💞

Beautiful and meaningful words for our time. Thank you! 🙏🏻💕🕊

Saving. I need to be reminded of this often as my mind is the great forgetter