May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
Last Sunday we heard the first words and the final words of
the Mother of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John. Today in our readings from the Sacred
Scriptures we hear the first words proclaimed to the people of Israel after
their exile in Babylon. We also hear the
first words proclaimed by the Lord Jesus at the beginning of his public
ministry.
In our reading from the book of Nehemiah -- Ezra, the priest
and scribe, had gathered the people of Israel for the solemn reading of the
Torah. This was a proclamation of the
five books of the Law that God had given to his people through Moses. It is very likely that this was the first
gathering of the people since they had returned to Jerusalem from their exile
in Babylon. Three generations had passed
since the chosen people of the Lord had gathered in the holy city. When the people of the Lord heard the word of
the Lord and the explanation of his holy word, the people wept. They wept because they knew that they had not
lived as the Lord had invited his chosen people to live. Yet, my brothers and sisters, the word of the
Lord given through Ezra is not a word of condemnation. The word of the Lord is a message of joy and
a message of hope. “Do not weep . . .
Today is holy to the Lord . . . Do not be saddened, for rejoicing in the Lord
must be your strength.” The word of the
Lord called the chosen people of the Lord to life in his Spirit.
The Lord Jesus, in our gospel today, preached for the first
time in the synagogue of Nazareth. After
his baptism by John and his time of temptation in the desert, he had returned
to the town where he was raised. Taking
the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, the Lord Jesus read, “The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he has anointed me, to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to bring liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to
proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
When the Lord Jesus had finished reading, he rolled up the scroll. There would be no long day of the reading of
the scriptures as in the days of Ezra.
There would be no extended commentary on the passage of prophecy. The message of the Lord Jesus in the
synagogue of Nazareth was simple: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in
your hearing.”
The passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled
because the passage referred to the Lord Jesus.
The Spirit of the Lord was upon him.
He had been anointed to bring glad tidings to the poor, to bring liberty
to the captives, and to bring the recovery of sight to the blind. The Lord Jesus, at the beginning of his
public ministry, was announcing that he had come to bring the Spirit and he had
come to bring life. The Lord Jesus had
come into the world to bring the good news of the love of the Father to those
whose hearts were broken. He had come to
set us free from the power of sin and death and to heal the blindness of our
souls by the light of his glory. The
Lord Jesus had come to break the forces of oppression with the power of his
word and the blood of his cross. And the
Lord Jesus did this for us, not so that we might live for ourselves, but that
we might live for him. When we live for
the Lord Jesus we share in the sacred task of bringing glad tidings to the poor
and healing to the broken hearted. But
dear brothers and sisters, we are able to share the good news and the healing
power of the Gospel only because we have received the good news and the healing
power of the Gospel.
As we now enter into the mystery of the Lord’s love and his
healing power in the Eucharist, let us place our poverty of spirit before the
Lord. Let us admit our blindness and our
need for liberation. And let us joyfully
receive the Spirit of the Lord so that his words may be fulfilled in our living. Amen.
Preached in Spanish at Our Lady of
Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
