+ Our first reading today encourages us to listen to the Law of the Lord not in a
negative sense – not as a series of restrictions and binding regulations – but
rather as a generous boundary given by the God who orders all things for our
welfare, for our benefit and for our good: he knows how everything is supposed
to work and interact, he is after all Creator and Designer!
All of the men, women and
children who thus heard the Book of the Law were invited then to have a great feast of rich foods and sweet drinks
– for “that day was holy to the Lord” – and it was from that time onward to be a day of rejoicing which would be the
strength of the people.
In our own day, we come on the
Lord’s Day, in a sense, to hear the words of God at Mass in the readings and
the homily – which could be also described as his law, his dictates and
mandates – but we must take them for what they are – inspired words of
encouragement, guidance and love. Only God knows the way to where he is, and so
it would behoove us to listen to and follow the words and ways of the One sent
to us to show us that way: especially as he is God’s-own-words-now-in-human-flesh
In the gospel passage then we
see Jesus announcing quite matter-of-factly that he was indeed the Anointed One of God sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, 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. TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE PASSAGE IS
FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING! This was an astounding statement for Jesus to make:
no one would ever have dared (in a million years) to say such a thing: but
Jesus quite frankly reported: IT’S ME!
How fortunate they were to
hear this, how fortunate for us too! For we are incorporated into his very Body
the Church by the Holy Spirit who vitalizes every part of the Church so that
our salvation can be made available to us as we need it! And so: “It’s him, for
us too!”
As Jesus has been anointed to
proclaim the Gospel and work great deeds, so have others been appointed and
anointed in the same way: the bishops and priests carry on his work and the
poor have glad tidings brought to them
through parish ministries and programs,
captives of all kinds of forces both internal and external are freed
because of the spiritual power of bishops and priests, the spiritually and intellectually blind are able to see things as God
intends by an awakening of faith, and many of the physically and
psychologically oppressed are set free,
again by programs set in place that have the power of the Holy Spirit flowing
through them.
Jesus
came to save the world: it is the least that any of us can do to
let ourselves be saved, let us cooperate in our own redemption and help in
the renewal and resurrection of all those around us!
Your
words, Lord, are Spirit and life; let us, as your emissaries,
Lord, speak those words to all we meet today!
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