Roots of our Spirituality is found in our Native Place

 GOSPEL THOUGHTS

22^nd Week – Monday

Gospel – Luke 4: 16-30

 

Roots of our Spirituality is found in our Native Place

1) Native place is the beginning of our Spirituality.

Where did we learn first to pray? Where did we see for the first time a sacred place meant for worship? Where did we get the chance to know about Jesus and other spiritual things? The One word answer would be "Our Native Place"

So in our Spiritual life native place has a strong influence and it is the foundation of our spiritual life.

In our life the Native place has a first place for everything. In fact it decides everything in our life. So also it has a strong connection to our spiritual life

2) What do we understand by native Place?

This Native place includes many areas.

Our own house and our family members, especially our parents and siblings

A beautiful altar in our house, where we gathered to pray

A neighborhood house where we went for prayer and saw how people prayed together

Our Church, where we had been taken by our parents to baptize by which we became the children of God and the faith life began in an official way

Our School where we were taught the importance of Prayer and other basic catechism

In this sense the native place is a wide concept and it has a great relevance and influence on our spiritual life.

3) Nazareth was Jesus’ surname: Native place is our second Name or Surname

His native place was Nazareth, where he had grown up. Coming to native place always makes us joyful and it takes us to our childhood memories.  

Jesus gets the name ‘Nazareth’ from this place. Jesus of Nazareth is well known phrase which speaks about the importance of the Native place of Jesus

The very fact that Nazareth is mentioned in the Name of Jesus, it shows the importance of the native place in the life of the person

4) Respect for the Customs of the native Place

After coming to his native place he respects the custom of the place; that is, he goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath day

Thus He respects the custom of his native place

Respecting the customs of the place shows the Humility of Jesus. Sometimes when some people become great in their life they forget the custom of the Native Place. At times they feel that those customs of their native place are unreasonable and silly. But Jesus never felt that the customs of the Native place are silly or unreasonable.

When people forget to respect the customs of the native place it also shows that they have lost the humility in their lives. Such a kind of pride is not good.  

5) Spending time in the Synagogue

He spends time in synagogue in praying and reading the word of God.

Respecting the custom of native place with regard to the spiritual life is very important. Jesus gave importance to those things.

He learnt this beautiful custom of praying in the synagogue from his native place.

Most of our customs with regard to our spiritual life, we have learnt from our native place. Are we ashamed of practicing such beautiful customs when we grow and migrate to other places?  

When we go to our native place it is better to visit the church or the sacred place where we learnt to pray and when we grow in our spiritual life.

6) My Native place and the customs about the Spiritual life

What is the custom of my family or my native place with regards to the spiritual things?

We have learnt the beautiful custom of praying from our family. Let us respect this custom wherever we are and whatever we become in our life.

We have learnt the Beautiful custom of asking blessings from our parents after the prayer and also from religious people. They gave us God's blessing. Do I respect this custom today in my life? Or do I feel ashamed of ask blessings from the elders?

We have learnt to kiss the altar and holy images with reverence from our house when we were small. What about today? Do I feel the need of it?

We have learnt the beautiful custom of reading the word of God and respecting the Holy Bible from our house or from our native Church. What about Today?

 Let us respect these beautiful customs of our native places which we learnt from our parents and teachers when we were small.

7) What I am today is the result of My Native Place

One can't undermine the importance of once native place and the good values which were learnt from our families.

What we are today is the result of our family and the native place.

In our greatness the native place always takes first place. We need to remember this fact.

When we become great; people will always make a reference to our native place.  So it shows the importance of the Native place.

Let's remember this and let's respect some of the important customs of our native places which help us to live a good and holy life.

Let us remember that we should never bring a bad name or disgrace to our native place by our wicked things. Always bring glory to the native place.  

God bless you and your family. Praying for you and your dear ones.

Fr Maxim D’Souza

Jeppu Seminary

Mangalore