Jesus, a celebrity?

Jesus was viewed as a celebrity in the Gospel today. The villagers of Nazareth had heard of the things that Jesus had done in other places. So, the homecoming of Jesus to his home village had caused excitement.  The local boy had made it big. So he has returned and had proven himself to be an eloquent speaker, or else he would not have “won the approval of all.” (As the Jerusalem Bible states.). Then Jesus proceeds to tell them that they would not get what they were hoping for: a demonstration of his powers. Of course, after his rather long discourse, the villagers were riled up.

Are we not like the villagers from Nazareth?  We gravitate to the spectacular. We would prefer the eloquent speaker to the less eloquent. Retreats and talks: do we regard the retreat masters and speakers like celebrities?  Whilst I understand that we want to be enriched spiritually by a meaningful retreat or talk, there are times I would pick and choose on the basis of whether the speaker meets my expectations.  At those times I recognise the villagers of Nazareth in me.  It is not the speaker I should be concerned about, but whether I am open to the message if Christ that is transmitted via the speaker.  If we are open to the Lord, He can speak to us with the plainest of statements.  There are many times when I chide myself for not delivering a homily well. Yet,someone would come to me and share how something I said during the homily was significant to them.  This does not excuse me from preparing for my homilies but it does indicate to me that it is God who matters, not me, the one who delivers the message.

Let us pray this week that we would stop being groupies or fans of particular speakers.  Rather, let us be followers of Chrst Jesus, the Son of God. Let us remember not to turn our priests and religious into celebrities.