Stop Pushing God Away

And he said: Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country. In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine throughout all the earth. And to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta of Sidon, to a widow woman. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet: and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, hearing these things, were filled with anger. And they rose up and thrust him out of the city; and they brought him to the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them, went his way.
Luke 4:24-30 (Douay-Rheims Bible)

Prayer Reflection

Dear Father you come to us to bring us love and healing, but often we do the same as this reading. We drive you off, push you away like spoiled little children who only want to play. Not once thinking how you want to cleanse us and bring us closer to you. How many of us have truly rejected you in this way when all you did was show us your love. Do we do our part in our lives to love those who are less fortunate, to love those who suffer, to love those who hate us or to even love those who we don't feel too welcome by. Take a moment and reflect on the many times we have read in the Gospel, the times Jesus was rejected. Think about this reading too and the rejection that God suffers for our sake when he sends others to help and they get rejected. What do we as part of his children do in this ourselves. We have done it time and time again ourselves. Whenever we reject our neighbors, we reject God, his love that may come from the least likely person to bring healing, to teach us how to love. Do we reject the person sitting next to us because they don't dress as well as we do, or look as clean and tidy. Everything is up to us on how we continue each day, the choices we make in how we deal with our neighbors, or for that matter how we love them in the same regard as loving God. Who have we rejected this day?