The Placing of the Precious Robe of Our Most Holy Lady and the Mother of God in the Church at Blachernae in Constantinople
Verkhrats’ka Weeping Icon of the Mother of God (1688)
Read
Hebrew 9:1-7; Luke 10:38-42, 11:27-28
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
All of us have heard a homily or two where to us the message is uninspiring and boring. After hearing the homily, we hope that we never have to hear that deacon, priest, or bishop preach again. We place all blame for the poorness of the homily in the preacher. But do we ever consider that the problem with the homily is not the preacher but rather us? Do we go into the homily with preconceived ideas about the preacher because we personally know him, his family, or his hometown?
Jesus runs into this exact problem in today’s Gospel. He comes to His hometown, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God, healing people as signs of the presence of this kingdom among us and instead of being welcomed, everyone is tied to their preconceived knowledge of Jesus and His family. They cannot get over Jesus’ early life in order to be open to receive the Good News.
Brothers and sisters, may we not allow our opinions about a preacher to restrict the effectiveness of the preached Word of God in our lives!