20220130 Homily of the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Lk 4:21-30 "The meaning of the Cross"
Not doing things we can do is more challenging than doing things we can not do. Because we tend to evaluate one another from what we have done, are doing, can do, or will do. That seems fair and sound standards. That is true unless we consider the meaning of the Cross. I found the meaning of the Cross from not doing things even we can do well. The meaning of the Cross is perfection comes from imperfection.
Today we read the exciting and fascinating narrative of Jesus in his hometown. He astonished people with his speech in the synagogue. However, they drove him out of the town after they found out that Jesus was the person they used to know well, not someone special but just like one of them. What a dramatic change that happened in a second.
This short moment of the change presents how the world would react to the saviour's coming. The reaction did not happen only once 2,000 years ago. Not only at the time when Jesus visited the hometown but also at this time we live. Not only by the people of his hometown but also by us. Now, Ourselves.
Let us see how Jesus fulfilled God's plan perfectly. It was by not doing things he could do, even if he had to endure others' misunderstanding, that would make him seem a liar or a fraud. When Satan tempted him in the desert, the people of his hometown threatened him, Jesus created perfection from imperfection by not doing things he could do. By doing so, he broke people's standards and converted them upside down. Eventually, he completed this conversion at the Cross by accepting and following God's plan.