Mr. Hammond’s Chapel Reflection Podcast – January 27, 2010 – Perseverance
Welcome to the Saint Patrick Catholic School Chapel Reflection Podcast. Brought to you by principal Steve Hammond, this week’s reflection meditates on a lesson that Jesus teaches us at the beginning of his ministry about the power of perseverance.
A transcript of the reflection is found below:
Chapel Reflection
27 January 2010
Now let’s get this straight. Jesus is beginning his public ministry. It hasn’t been too long ago that we celebrated Christmas. After that we read about the wise men coming to see Jesus and giving him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We celebrated the feast of the holy family where the 12-year-old Jesus stayed behind in the temple waxing eloquent with the scholars of the law. That, by the way was the only snippet of information that we have of Jesus from the time he was born to when he started his public ministry. Do you remember when he began his public ministry? Yes, it was in a town called Cana when his mother asked him to assist the bridegroom when he ran out of wine. It was his first public miracle.
So you see how the church tells the stories from the Bible in order. It gives us a calendar of events and what kind of calendar is it called? It is called the liturgical calendar. You’ll notice graphics of this calendar in several places around the school. Have you seen it?
It starts with the season of Advent, before Christmas and proceeds to Easter. We have a number of calendars that we live by: 1.) The regular calendar, 2.) Our academic calendar, 3.) Our fiscal calendar, 4.) And the liturgical calendar. The liturgical calendar is important as we walk with Jesus throughout the entire year, learn, pray, meditate and breathe Jesus’ good news for humanity!
Now let’s look at today’s Gospel. Remember this gospel will be proclaimed this coming Sunday. So, be sure to go to church and you can talk all about it to your family! What I’m doing for you now is what you can do for others later. Sharing, proclaiming, understanding Jesus and what he meant.
Remember, we are early in the liturgical year and Jesus is just starting his ministry. He has worked remarkable miracles in a city called Capernaum. Word travels fast and it had reached his home town of Nazareth. People were excited to see him in this small town and to witness the miracles that they thought he would perform. They expected to see the miracles. Perhaps some thought that Jesus would cure them from their illnesses. But Jesus didn’t do it. It was like he was saying, “Miracles aren’t a circus act.” Miracles involve your faith as much as they involve mine. I don’t work “miracles on demand!” This disappointed that people dramatically.
But get this: when he was preaching in the synagogue, he told the people, the ones who knew him from his boyhood… that a prophet is never recognized in his own country. Uh-oh. He’s telling the people who know him intimately that he is a prophet. Nazareth was a small town. Everybody knew each other. Everybody knew each other’s business. For years, everybody knew Jesus’ business. So to have him say that he was a prophet did not go over too well. They were disappointed and now they’re angry.
But not only that. You’ve got to remember that this gospel took place in Israel, 2000 years ago, under Roman occupation. That means the Romans ruled Israel. Most Jews hated the Romans. They did not want to be ruled, they did not want to be controlled. They wanted to be free. Remember, freedom is one of our basic needs. If you are not free, you can not claim your power and achievement needs very well. If you do not have a little bit of freedom and power, that is no fun. Not only that, but the Roman rulers tax the Jews unmercifully. That threatens their survival. After taxes, many people barely had enough to get by. Survival needs were threatened. So, survival, fun, power, and freedom needs were threatened. Definitely the Israeli people were not having fun at this point in their history.
They wanted someone, a messiah, to come in and straighten out all this mess. They wanted a warrior, a conqueror. Someone who would drive out these hated Roman oppressors and restore Jewish rule to Israel. But, oh my gosh, Jesus dramatically challenged that need and belief. He quickly referenced to prophets, Elijah and Elisha and told him stories of how through them God only spoke to the non Jewish people of their day. A Phoenician and a Syrian! He told them that it was only the non-Jews that could hear the voice of these prophets in these stories, and by implication, they would not hear him, the prophet in from of them.
In other words, he was saying, “You don’t get it! You can’t hear it! You cannot see beyond the nose on your face! Not only that, the people that you hate, are seeing it before you can see it! Not only that, I am comparable to Elijah and Elisha. Not only that, but the Messiah is not a warrior and will not deliver you out of the hands of Rome. And not only that, I’m not going to work any miracles.”
Oh Lord, are they mad! They literally dragged Jesus out of their synagogue, took him to a cliff and were going to throw him over the cliff and kill him when he managed to walk through their midst to safety. Sounds like he may well have worked a miracle, but certainly not the kind they were seeking.
This was not a banner day for Jesus. He was starting his ministry… in his hometown. Preaching to the people who knew him best and they totally rejected him to the point of attempting to kill him. (Now, keep in mind that Jesus was amazingly bright. When it came to the Scriptures and spiritual wisdom, he was a child prodigy. They knew that, too.) I suspect that Jesus knew what he was doing when he dramatically challenged their beliefs. I’m not sure he anticipated them trying to throw him off the cliff.
But Jesus escaped and went on with his ministry for another three years. He did not let this setback turn him from preaching the truth. He did not quit. He did not lick his wounds and go home. He did not say, “I just can’t do this anymore.” Absolutely not.
What he did do was… persevere. Now, this is one for the word wall! What does persevere mean?
Let’s listen to what one of our past presidents said of persistence/perseverance:
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge
Jesus persevered. In not quitting his ministry, Jesus gave us a profound lesson. You do not quit! If you have a goal, don’t give up on it. You might have obstacles in your way and they might be monumental. People might tell you that you cannot do it and laugh at you for trying. You might get frustrated beyond belief to the point that every fiber in your body says quit. You might be tired and can barely pick up, the ball, the stick, the book, the pen …. whatever it is.
But if you have the dream, and you know it to be the truth… then never say die and do what it takes (within the realm of honesty and goodness) to attain your goals.
The world is filled with people who have done just that. People who have overcome almost insurmountable odds and obstacles to attain what most others only dream of.
Wilma Rudolph comes to mind.
So, Jesus was saying many things in this scripture reading that one of the great things he was modeling in his actions was this thing called perseverance.
So……persevere. Amen!
