In today's Gospel, we are reminded how much people in general do not want to change, or hear any truths that may make them change. (Luke 4:24-30
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
“Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place." Then he told them where they have heard and seen this before:
"Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land." And then they understood that he was claiming to be Christ, and they wondered how this could be since they watched him grow up and they knew his parents. And they got angry.
"When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong." They got so angry they wanted to kill him!
"But he passed through the midst of them and went away." He walked away by the grace of God to fulfill his path. Still, this is not unlike all of our own experiences. People know you the way the choose to know you. When you get together with people you knew in the past, they treat you like they knew you then. It's difficult for them to deal with changes. But everyone changes with time. There's an old saying: "I don't like change, but I don't like the way things are either." We all have these things going on within us and in our relationships each day. But through patience and practice we can choose to do the right thing as many times as we can, and when we don't, we have to ask for forgiveness, and try to do the right thing the next time. None of us is without sin.