Sermon on the 4th Sunday of the Year H. Barbara Bunnik January 30, 2022

My dear sisters and brothers, the inhabitants of the small town of Nazareth where Jesus grew up were impressed by him 1). They had heard about the wonderful things he had said and done in other places. Now Jesus himself stood before them in their own synagogue. “All agreed to him and marveled that words flowed from his mouth so full of grace.” They elbowed each other, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Apparently there was only one Joseph in Nazareth. So they didn’t even have to add “the carpenter” or “Mary’s husband”. Joseph was one of them. They were proud that their town had produced such an inspiring charming rabbi like Jesus.
Looking at Jesus increased their self-esteem. Nazareth was looked down upon a bit. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” was the general opinion. But now that they had heard Jesus themselves, pride awakened in them. Just like the neigbourhood Ondiep of the city of Utrecht at a beautiful goal or pass by Wesley Snijder who grew up there, they glowed with pride as if they had scored the goal themselves. Think more recently how the Dutch and their small country went almost crazy because of Max Verstappen Thus the inhabitants of Nazareth were proud that Jesus was one of them. Like an extension of them. A product they produced as Joseph’s son.
And this is where the shoe pinches. Pride in itself is not wrong. If you have something that is precious in your eyes and that you handle with care, something beautiful, you are proud of it. But if that precious thing you own, makes you more important in your eyes than others who don’t—especially if you look down on others for that—then something is wrong. Thus prestige, lineage, fame and virtue is in itself a privilege, but when it makes people rise above others, and look down on others, and pretend that they owe it to themselves, it changes from something valuable to something ugly. Pride is then nothing but vanity and self-love. “Though I have the perfect faith that moves mountains, I had not love, I was nothing,” we heard Paul say in his famous ode to love 2).
Jesus senses and was also prepared for his fellow citizens wanting to run off with him as a sort of trophy. That is why he holds up a mirror to them. And therefore us. For the Jesus who speaks to the people in the synagogue is none other than Jesus who speaks to us here and now. Therefore, at the end, the priest or deacon reading the Gospel silently prays: “May our sins be blotted out by the words of the Gospel” 4).
Jesus holds up a mirror to the people. He doesn’t punish them, he doesnot lashes with harsh words  but he uses humor. It is actually a kind of distorting mirror. So that the people who look into it feel caught and have to laugh at themselves too. Humor is liberating. It is very often an escape route in an uneasy tense situation.
That is why Jesus uses two examples from biblical history that they are all familiar with. Of that great famine in which Elijah went not to one of the many widow women in Israel, but to a widow across the border. And of the Syrian general who was healed of his leprosy by the prophet Elisha while many lepers were in Israel. Were not those events the example of a prophet not being honored in his own country? So why would the townspeople of Jesus think they had a right to have him perform miracles in their midst? Did they sometimes feel more important than others because he came from among them? Then this is precisely what stands in the way of Jesus from doing beneficial things in their midst. What Jesus encounters is complacency. From people who have known him from childhood and who think they have a right to him above others: “Physician, heal yourself. Now show here too the wonders that you did for.” They were actually jealous. Complacency is often accompanied by jealousy. A complacent person is hurt very easily. Jesus’ humor is seen as an insult. They get angry and banish Jesus from the synagogue. We often see this in politics, but also in the field of religion. Especially where complacency turns into fanatism. That people feel easily stepped on their toes. Humor is taken as an insult. And irony is often misunderstood.
It’s a bad sign that people get angry so easily in our days. The fuses are short. The people who were once so proud of Jesus as a fellow villager are now threatening to throw him off the rock. But Jesus turns and walks among them unharmed. He is fearless, for he knows that his mission to bring people closer to God cannot be hindered by anyone. “I will make you a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of bronze over all the land,” God said to the prophet Jeremiah 4).
Let us as people of faith be wary of complacency. If we are filled with our selves, even with our belief, we can’t be filled with Gods love. The fact that we are allowed to know Jesus is no reason to look down on others, or to think that we now have an advantage with God. As if we should not be happy with God, but that God should be happy with us. Indeed, for those who believe, there is nothing more precious than knowing Jesus and there is nothing more beautiful than being part of the Catholic tradition and forming together a community that puts the Gospel into practice. But without love and without gentleness and forgiveness and humor it is nothing. It should not be about ourselves, but about Jesus, a man of flesh and blood like us, son of Joseph, but above all the Son of God, the Father, who came into the world to make us feel God’s love and to save and heal the world

Martin Los, pr
1) Gospel in the Mass of this Sunday: Luke 4:21-30
2) second lesson I Korinthe 12:31-13:13
3) Missale Romanum
4) first lesson: Jeremijah 1;4-5,19-19