Lk 4: 24-30
And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Broadening Our Vision
Naaman almost missed his healing because it wasn’t being offered the way he expected it should be. A prophet is not accepted in his own place because people have preconceived ideas about who might be a prophet and they can’t see other possibilities or imagine that their perspective is not correct. I wonder how many miracles I have passed up because I was attached to my point of view or way of seeing. How many times a day do we fail to recognize Christ because the person in front of us doesn’t look like the paintings of Jesus? These readings invite me to take a step back and broaden my view. Miracles, Christ, solutions to problems often manifest in ways or through people that surprise us.
How is God inviting us to broaden our vision today? How is Christ manifesting in your life today? What healing is God offering if we only have enough courage to look beyond our vision?
—Amy Hoover is a spiritual director and the Director of Adult Ministry at the Jesuit Spiritual Center at Milford.
Prayer
Open my eyes, Lord
Help me to see your face
Open my eyes, Lord
Help me to see
Open my ears, Lord
Help me to hear your voice
Open my ears, Lord
Help me to hear
Open my heart, Lord
Help me to love like you
Open my heart, Lord
Help me to love
—Lyrics to “Open My Eyes” by Jesse Manibusan