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Jesus Enlarges Our Horizons
This is a summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily delivered at St. Charles on January 25, 2004
"TO LET THE OPPRESSED GO FREE." Luke 1:14
We grow up with blinkers on. We lack peripheral vision.
I was proud to be a Corkman, from the biggest and best county in Ireland, "The Rebel County." Ten miles west of us was Kerry, an area of hills and bogs, that styled itself "The Kingdom of Kerry". The sergeant of police in our village was an exile from Kerry. When we drove west to Killarney to play golf, as we approached the break in the road , a change in the color of the chippings , that was the only signal that we had crossed the border to Kerry, he would shout, "Roll down the windows! Now breathe in the fresh air of the Kingdom!" We might dispute the accuracy of his observation but we did allow inter-marriage.
Today's Gospel calls us beyond our narrow boundaries.
We know the Gettysburg address by rote, and the inaugural address of President Kennedy "ask not what your country can do for you?" Today's gospel is Jesus' first homily. How many of us know it by heart? It could be viewed as his mission statement, and ours as his would be followers. He came to bring good news, liberty and sight to the poor, the captive and the blind. He came "To let the oppressed go free."
Sometimes as Catholics we seem to prefer the binding requirements of rules, regulations and commandments that bring safety, to the freeing words of Jesus. His good news remind me of a song popular in my teenage years, "Please release me let me go!"
His first hearers seemed very content with his teaching. "All spoke highly of him." He was fine as long as he just repeated Isaiah. Then he risked applying the message. God's universal love includes the healing of Naaman the Syrian. It was like saying, "The Palestinians are God's Chosen People" It was akin to telling my father than the Church of England was the one and only. They attempted to throw him over the nearby cliff.
This week we dedicate our new Community Center. Let is be a house big enough for all of us to gather. On this Catholic Schools week let us make sure that our classrooms are open and affordable to the immigrant and the stranger
Jesus came to enlarge our horizons.
