The readings this weekend tell us that we should have and show the courage of our Christian convictions … even when we might face dislike and rejection because of how we express our Christian faith. This Gospel passage shows us how Jesus faced skepticism and criticism with prophetic courage (GREAT phrase!). Jesus knew that “He had been sent” to proclaim a message that was prophetic, but He also knew that it would be disturbing to the people. The passage gives us a picture of the people listening and they obviously didn’t know what to think. Here was Jesus, a man they had watched grow up in Nazareth…and, here He was, proclaiming that he was the One spoken of in Isaiah…the one who had come to set us all mankind free. What?! What? How could this be? How could this Jesus whom the people knew so well (or so they thought) be the Messiah? The people reacted negatively to Jesus and His message and I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by that. In fact, they felt so negatively that they were prepared to throw Jesus off the edge of a cliff. The story of Jesus' rejection in his own hometown is a story that we can identify with because it is a story that has happened to most of us. We have experienced the pain of rejection and betrayal. Those closest to us have on occasion broken out trust. Often our friends and family members cannot fathom seeing US as agents of God's healing and saving grace. Perhaps we ourselves are guilty of rejecting others for the same reason. How often have we discounted people through prejudice, for instance? We must realize that God's power is always available to transform even the most unlikely people, and that His power may come to us through unlikely instruments. By our baptism, God calls us to be prophets like Jesus, sharing his prophetic mission. The task of a prophet is to speak and to live out God’s truth. We must never be afraid of this call, for it is Jesus who will supply us with the courage we will need to speak the truth and be Christ to one another. One of our favorite national pastimes is “passing the buck”. We have all played this game of letting someone else do what we should be doing, of handing on a job, a responsibility, or an assignment. We particularly like to pass the buck when it comes to listening to sermons. We think that some of the best homilies, retreats, conferences and lectures we hear are “meant for someone else." We listen and say:“That’s good advice for my kids,” “My neighbors should have heard this homily,” or “That’s aimed at my office staff,” and so on. And that is precisely what Jesus’ hometown people did. They did not acknowledge that they were poor, blind or prisoners who needed a savior and liberator. Hence, they not only rejected Jesus and His “liberation theology,” but also tried to eliminate him from the world as their ancestors had killed the prophets sent to them by God. Gospel Question of the Week: Do you believe that you are a prophet for the Lord?