Daily Readings - Mon Sep 02 2019

¹³Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.¹⁴We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.¹⁵According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.¹⁶For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.¹⁷After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.¹⁸Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Luke

Chapter 4

¹⁶He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:¹⁸"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him,²¹and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.²³Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'"²⁴"I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown.²⁵I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.²⁷And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian."²⁸All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.²⁹They 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 down the cliff.³⁰But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Sermon

In today's readings, we find profound messages of hope and the challenges of living out our faith. The First Reading from 1 Thessalonians reminds us of the hope we have in the resurrection. It reassures us that those who have passed away in Christ will rise again, and we will all be united with the Lord. This passage comforts early Christians dealing with grief, offering a vision of eternal togetherness with God. The Gospel from Luke presents Jesus in Nazareth, where he proclaims his mission to the poor and the marginalized. Despite initial amazement, the crowd turns hostile when Jesus points out that prophets are often rejected at home, using examples of Elijah and Elisha helping outsiders. This highlights the tension between Jesus' universal mission and the local community's expectations, leading to his rejection. These readings relate by emphasizing hope and the challenges of faith. The resurrection gives us hope beyond death, while Jesus' mission shows us the importance of reaching out to all, even in the face of rejection. In our daily lives, we may encounter resistance when standing up for our beliefs or helping others, but we are called to endure, trusting in God's plan. Let us draw strength from the hope of eternal life and continue serving others as Jesus did, even when faced with adversity.