Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus chooses to preach on Isaiah 61 for his
inaugural address in his hometown synagogue. He felt that this text summed up who he was and what his mission was.
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me," he declared. The Ruach Yahweh,
the breath of God—this is what has seized and animated Jesus. After the
Resurrection, he breathed on his disciples, symbolically communicating
to them (and the Church) something of this spirit.
Animated by the Ruach Yahweh,
what does he do? "He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly."
The lowly hear this, those who are oppressed, the poor, the unjustly
treated, the marginalized and forgotten. What is the good news? That
God’s love is more powerful than the powers of this world.
This
is the message of Christ. Therefore, when you place yourself on the
side of this power, you are on the winning side, though dark powers
gather around you. It is fully expressed in the Paschal Mystery. The
world threw its entire power against Jesus, and God raised him up.
Nothing can overwhelm or overcome the authority of the Lord God.
Thursday after Epiphany
Lectionary: 215
Beloved, we love God because
he first loved us.
If anyone says, “I love God,”
but hates his brother, he is a liar;
for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen
cannot love God whom he has not seen.
This is the commandment we have from him:
Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,
and everyone who loves the Father
loves also the one begotten by him.
In this way we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and obey his commandments.
For the love of God is this,
that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
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.”
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
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