Accepting Christ

The Christian believes that the event of Christ’s coming to us, on which our final and ultimate salvation depends has occurred precisely in Jesus of Nazareth. Consequently, His doctrine and His Spirit are absolute truth and life for us; His death our redemption; that the consummation of the world consists in the definitive revelation of the utter intimacy between God and His creature.

All life comes from God as Creator. The existence of men and women like no other in the rung of creation (plants and irrational animals) has the Creator for its source, our Divine Maker who breathes the breath of life into us. In Him we are and move and have our being. Accepting our own existence, that is our humanity in faith, hope and love, as the mystery which conceals within itself the mystery of eternal Love which gives us life even at the bosom of death, says "Yes" to something which corresponds to our limitless surrender to God our Maker. For we are His very own – all of us regardless. Surrendering to God fills us with the limitless, because God Himself fills us with the limitless, that is, with His divine Self when His only begotten Son, His eternal Word became flesh, becoming one like and among us in this mystery called the Incarnation.

To accept and assume one’s human condition without reserve is to accept the Son of Man, because in Him God has accepted and assumed man. When Scripture declares that he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law, this is the ultimate truth for the reason that God Himself has become this neighbor in Christ. So whenever we accept and love our neighbor we are at the same time loving and accepting the One Neighbor Jesus Christ who is nearest of all to us because He is the Son of Man and infinitely far above us because He is the Son of God.

As John, the Evangelist in the fourth Gospel said of Christ, "He came to what is His own and His own people did not accept Him" (Jn 1:11). Jesus appearing to a humble Visitation nun, showing His Sacred Heart complained that He has so loved but has received no love in return. In the Gospel of today, we find the people amazed at Jesus’ words of wisdom. They questioned, "Isn’t this the son of Joseph, the carpenter?" And Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in His own native place" (Lk 4:22.24).

To this very day, rejection of Jesus Christ, continues on. Everytime we doubt or refuse to believe His teachings, we reject Him. Everytime we do not give God His due by refusing to adore, thank, love and serve Him directly, we reject Christ. Every act of man’s inhumanity to man by any act of violence is a rejection of Christ. Every fraud, dishonesty, manipulation, exploitation, direct theft or indirect through refusal to give a just wage, we reject Christ. Devaluing life or taking it in hand through the practice of abortion, euthanasia, cloning of the human embryo or direct murder is a rejection of Christ. Everytime we look down on the poor, refuse to forgive, to give compassion to any suffering neighbor, aid to the sick and the disabled, we reject Christ. Rejection of God is the ultimate sin. Looking with confident expectation to reunion with the Lord, it finds any rejection of Him almost incomprehensible.

Acceptance of Christ is of fundamental importance. God who is Spirit, Light and Love has sent His only beloved Son into the flesh in that those who accept Him in faith may be reborn, filled with light and grace even here and now, but destined one day for the most intimate communion with God in glory.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Luke 4:21-30.