Perfect Love

"And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth...

When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury."

Luke 4: 22, 28

 

What a difference a few verses can make! Verse 22, the people love Jesus; verse 28, they run him out of town.  People can be so fickle! Jesus, the first century celebrity, has learned what many, even most, celebrities learn; one minute you're up, the next minute, you're down. But why did the hometown crowd turn on Jesus? I'm wondering if it was out of fear. We learned in our homily this past weekend that fear makes people do crazy things. And if a whole group feels fear, the group-think kicks in and, stand back, REALLY crazy things happen.  We also learned in our homily that we have no reason for any fear, because we have Jesus.  The people of Nazareth may not have appreciated him, but we do! We have no reason to fear because Jesus is Perfect Love and Perfect Love casts out fear.  And that is a wonderful gift to ponder this last day of August!  Love, heidi