4th Sunday Reflection: Human Invaluableness
Franciscan Reflections From The Hermitage – Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time Year C
Human Invaluableness – Luke 4:21-30
We find it hiding in dark corners; anger, frustration, bitterness, envy, regret, and resentment… entitlement is very much part of our journey. Some fleeting, situational rush of entitlement can even be a good thing, increasing creativity leading to novel solutions to problems. Yet also a dangerous path that leads to the loss of our joy and our sense of well-being. It is also the highway to murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, intolerance, and religious bigotry.
In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus reads aloud from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and announces that this Scripture is now fulfilled. Jesus highlights God’s Mercy and God’s Love rather than justice and compensation. This is not popular and will not end well. Jesus’ reading does not go to verse two of the passage that states, “This is the year when the LORD God will show kindness to us and punish our enemies”.
But Jesus does not stop there, Jesus quotes from scripture passages where this ‘right way’ is upside down; we the righteous people are suffering while the Lord blesses our enemies… Somehow, the suffering of ‘my’ people and my own suffering have been negated; my value, our value is devalued. Who do you think you are?
Who are you my sister, my brother, my mother? What value do you have?
Is it in the hands of the great pianist?
Is it in the imagination of the great artist?
Is it in the intellect of the philosophers and great teachers?
Is it in the strength of the athlete?
Is it in the legs of the ballerina?
Is it in the perfect body of youth?
Perhaps your value is more to be found in the group to which you belong? Is it in the esteem of my peers? Is it in the birthright in my family, nation, or clan? Is it in the number of followers you have on Facebook? Perhaps it is the progeny that I can claim?
The notion that we have of self-esteem tied to our success and achievements, leads to the fallacy of dependent worth. Rather than having inherent human dignity and value, this is the contingent-worth logic of self-esteem; some life is more important than other lives.
For our recently deceased, beloved ‘Arch’, the non-negotiable concept of our human ‘invaluableness’, made him a path to the conscience of the great and small throughout South Africa and all over our world. It was also the source of his wonderful infectious joy.
The incident in today’s gospel story is a precious moment of grace for the people of Nazareth, one that we also are called to experience; Jesus invited them, as he does us, to stop hiding behind their false identities and come to the truth of ourselves.
Too often we forget that being part of a group says nothing about our personal worth. A moment of grace; to stop, to listen, and to hear the gracious Words of Jesus and to be astonished, to be in awe! God’s creation is good, God’s creation is holy; it is the nature of God to Love God’s creation as part of God’s own being.
All creation and every single life has limitless value in God’s eyes and therefore we pray to see as God sees, so that we may Love as God Loves.
This is the work of Jesus the Christ; this is the work of redemption, to reveal to us our true value in the Love that God bears for God’s creation.
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