+ In a dramatic way Jesus opens his public ministry by selecting the passage from the Prophet Isaiah and reading it in his home synagogue in Nazareth. He then challenges everyone in attendance to actually listen and hear what he has to say, and to watch and see what he is doing, for it will be unlike any other person they have ever seen.
When he announces that the
prophecy is now fulfilled in himself, the people wish to run him out of town
and throw him over a cliff – but he eludes them. He has many more things to say
and do before he actually allows himself to be taken and killed – but that is
at the end of the story.
In contrast to Jesus’ public
announcement of ministry, Paul, in the first reading says that he comes among
the communities that he visits “in weakness, fear and much trembling – and not
with the persuasive words of wisdom” – but he gets his gospel message across
quite well because it is the Spirit who is doing the speaking, and who is
opening the hearts and minds of the hearers.
May we today, in our labors,
in our weakness, and with fear and trembling, likewise be proclaimers of the
mysteries of the Kingdom – pointing the people we come across in our day always
towards heaven – and to the God and Father who loves us all so very, very much!
Lord, I love your commands.
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