August 30, 2021 Monday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time-B

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Psalm 96

Luke 4:16-30

“When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury…” Lk. 4:28

Lord, I’d think that launching your ministry in your hometown, among all your family and friends, would have been a slam-dunk. You should have been their hometown hero. They all knew you well and were initially pleased with the words you spoke in the synagogue that day. But something went horribly wrong for them to want to kill you.   Describing your work in terms of caring for the poor, setting captives free, and healing the blind was all well and good until you mentioned how Elijah and Elisha ministered to foreigners. That set them off because they knew the fate of those two prophets.  To these people you were not the kind of Messiah they wanted or expected. How sad you must have felt at this violent rejection by your friends. Lord, so many reject you today. The apathy and misunderstanding you receive now is nothing new. Help us recognize the dignity and respond with welcome to those who are different.  Please let me walk with you today and share in your work of encouraging the poor, freeing someone of guilt and fear, and helping free those in the chains of loneliness.  Amen