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Gospel Reflection 20070121

Examine your actions and attitudes.
Holiness has to do with relationships. And good relationships require attentiveness and self-control. Jesus warns us against acts of anger and destructive attitudes, such as contempt. He urges us to forgive readily and to seek forgiveness for our faults. Does anyone hold anything against you? To grow in holiness is to attend to that.

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Bringing Good News
January 21, 2007


Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21
Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: "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 proclaim 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." Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."


During this liturgical year we will be listening to the Gospel according to Saint Luke. The author tells us that in his Gospel he wrote everything that he already knew, and everything that he could collect, about the life of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, using information, great and small, that the Christian community gave him. Everything that he collected he placed in one book, describing all that was true about the life, passion and death of our Redeemer. We do not know what Saint Luke’s ability as a writer was before he began this great task. What we can say is that writing had not been his profession. Tradition has always told us that Saint Luke was a doctor. Nevertheless, we can see that he wrote a great and marvelous book. He works as a historian investigating conscientiously so that we can know the truth.
The first part or the first paragraph is taken from the opening words of Luke’s gospel story, chapter one. Luke is of course an evangelist, but here he acts and writes like a historian. He wants his readers to know that his story is not only true but that he can personally vouch for it. He himself has gathered all the pertinent information, and has investigated and uncovered the truth. It is like he is saying: “Look, I am writing the greatest story in the world, and nothing but the best is good enough for it.”

In the Gospel today, Saint Luke begins to narrate to us how Our Lord’s public life began. He tells us that at that time, Jesus had returned from Galilee with much strength and filled with the Holy Spirit. His fame was beginning to spread around the area. When he spoke in synagogues people listened attentively and praised what he said. But we also see in the Gospel that at that time, just as today, there were people who do not want to recognize the qualities that others have, even though these may be great and their words are undoubtedly wise.
For three short years Jesus walked among the people of Palestine. How many people really discovered him for who he was? I too only have a short time to come to know the Lord. Our human existence is short. Jesus gives me many ways to come into contact with him: his word in Scripture, the sacraments, the good example of other Christians, the providential circumstances of my life, etc. Christ is present for the asking. Do I attempt to discover him more deeply each day?

The reading that day (read by Jesus in today’s Gospel) was an important one. It came from Isaiah, Chapter 61, in the Old Testament. It told of the “presence of the Spirit”, it spoke of “glad tidings”, of “liberty” and “release of prisoners”, and “recovery of sight to the blind”, as well as a “year of favor”.. All these were good things, all of them big blessings from God. It was not the old message of doom and scolding and fright that often came from the mouth of John the Baptist; no, this was something that uplifted the listeners, filled them with cheer and courage and hope…After listening to Jesus they could truly hope, because when Jesus finished reading he sat down and began to teach and to confirm the message. He made this wonderful promise: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, all the good things they longed for and wished for would and could come from him to them.
What kind of reaction did Jesus get from his hearers? What kind of reaction does he get from us? One thing seems sure to me. Our reaction should be the same as the signs we sometimes see in baseball stadiums: “You gotta believe!” We can’t react like the people of Nazareth. They heard this proclamation from Jesus and did not believe in him. Read the rest of chapter 4 in Luke’s gospel, and you will learn their reaction. Not only did they not believe, they wanted to get rid of Jesus. They were ready to throw him off the cliff on which Nazareth is built, get him out of town. No, we can’t be like them.
Rather, our reaction must be to take him at his word. His promises of joy and liberty, his glad tidings and announcements to the poor, are meant to give us courage and guidance. We must CELEBRATE life with him. The passage from Isaiah is applicable to our own life: because of Jesus our life should be joyful and serene. We can be sure that, because of Jesus, there are glad tidings for us, there is liberty from sin and hell, there is new sight and new beauty for us to see and enjoy, there are years of favor for us in the sight of God. Our life is meant to be a joy, not a sorrow.
Really, our faith makes is very simple. When we live our life according to God’s word and God’s promise, when we live our life in God’s presence, when we try to know, love and serve God in this world, we will truly be happy with him here on earth, and happier forever with him in heaven. What more do we need? What more could we ask?


“ Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing,” … a Scripture passage about good news for the poor, liberty for captives, recovery of sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. Yet next week, when we take up where today’s reading leaves off, we will hear that the people who were listening to him, his own friends and neighbors, forcibly took Jesus to the brow of the hill on which the town was built. They were ready to throw him off because he condemned them for hesitating to accept his authority. He was, after all, just one of them. Of course, they had reason for their reluctance to believe his of message. There was little sign that Roman power was lessening, and it was Rome that stood in the way of the independence and a return to their own political leadership. That was what many Jews saw as the real fulfillment of Scriptural promises of freedom. Yet, knowing their reluctance to accept what he said, Jesus announced that God’s promises of liberty and release were for the people of his time and place. “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus continued his mission of proclaiming release and freedom for several years in Galilee and in neighboring pagan areas. Finally in Jerusalem opposition to his message and to his rising popularity grew to the point that those in authority convicted him on baseless charges and insisted that he be crucified. Yet, at the beginning of his career, Jesus announced that he came to bring release, freedom, and liberty. Crucifixion did not stop the mission Jesus began at that time and place. Associates who witnessed his resurrection from the dead carried the message of freedom that Jesus spoke throughout what we call the Middle East and even into Europe, but opposition continued. Of the twelve originally appointed by Jesus to continue announcing his message of liberty only one escaped being killed for their work in spreading the gospel. Hundreds, if not thousands, continued to announce the good news of God’s will to save humanity from the binding power of the sins of some who in every age want power over others. They followed the apostles as martyrs to Christ’s message of release. Yet, from the very beginning Christ insisted that his message was one of release and healing. “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

There are reasons that make us reluctant to believe that a Scripture passage of release and freedom is fulfilled in our hearing. There is the ongoing “war” against terrorism. Members of our military have lost their lives in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Most families now have or know of men and women risking their lives for our freedom. Many people fear to travel by air. At home we know that our schools are far less safe than they used to be. There always were school bullies, but now gangs, drug dealers, and armed students are real fears for many parents. Corporation scandals and rip-offs have shaken our confidence the industrial giants that seem to control our economic well being including our investments and our retirement funds. Large numbers of people in this country cannot afford medical insurance and do not have it as an employment benefit. Without insurance emergency services is the only possible source for medical care. There are so many reasons that it is difficult for us to believe that Christ’s message of liberation is being fulfilled in our hearing today.


Jesus went to Nazareth, the small town in which he was raised. It was Saturday, and since he was a Jew, he went to the synagogue. When he was there, he arose with the intention of reading from scripture. Someone gave him the scroll that contained the book of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling it, he found the passage that we heard in the Gospel Reading. He read the same words that the prophet Isaiah had used when he spoke to the Jews who were oppressed and enslaved in Babylon during the exile. After the end of the reading, Jesus spoke to the Jews of Nazareth and its surroundings who had congregated in the synagogue. He explained to them that he had come to this world to end the slavery of the oppressed, referring to the slavery of souls, which because of sin we all suffer. The reading that the Lord read, talks about the mercy of God and how the liberation of the oppressed Jewish people would take place. God had listened to the cries of the people. Taking pity on then because of their suffering, God sent the Messiah, his own Son. Some people ask: why did the Messiah have to be the Son of God? The answer is simple and easy to answer. Our sins are the cause of our enslavement. And only God can free us from them because only God can pardon sins.

I am aware that this teaching is either not known, not understood or is simply ignored by many today, including Catholics. It is even dismissed as obsolete and contrary to human freedom and human rights. Some will deny that this is the teaching of Christ, and say it is only a biased, culturally limited interpretation of Christ. The underlying crisis in question here is, I believe, not a crisis about the content of Church doctrine, but about the very authority of the Church to teach at all in Christ's Name. It is a crisis of faith, a radical doubting about the means Christ Himself chose to keep his Bride, the Church, faithful and infallible in His Truth. It is also a crisis of faith in the sense that many people no longer consider Christ and His Church as relevant to their life choices. When human freedom is exalted as needing no justification other than itself, any authority that would set limits or define boundaries dictated by divine truth is regarded with suspicion, if not hostility. When people are accountable only to themselves, anything they choose is by that fact good, anything they say is by that fact true. No authority, human or divine, dare contradict them. For them, there is no dogma other than their own freedoms and rights, there is no sin other than to try and limit that freedom and those rights.
Yet this is so unrealistic. Freedom needs to be educated so as to be free. It can only be educated by the authority of the truth for, as Jesus teaches, "anyone who keeps my word will know the truth and the truth will set them free." The Church of Jesus, by the will and power of Jesus, teaches His truth, not to limit freedom, but to prevent freedom from seeking fulfillment in falsity. Lies enslave and destroy; the Church would fail to save us from such destruction if She failed to preach the truth, in season and out of season. Obedience to the truth is not contrary to freedom but anchors and defines freedom in that truth, thus making it truly free.

posted by Mike Young @ 9:50 AM