:: Sunday's Gospel — Luke 1, Jesus reads Isaiah ::
This Sunday's Gospel: Jesus reads from the Scroll of Isaiah in the Synagogue of Nazareth
Third Sunday of Ordinary Time - Sunday Jan. 24, 2010
Jesus begins His public Ministry by entering a House of God, unrolling the Scroll of Isaiah, declaring sight to blind, freedom for prisoners, the lifting of the yoke of oppression, and a Year of Favor of the Lord. He tells his captivated listeners (who would later try to kill Him for challenging them to repent) that the passage and its prophecy is fullfilled by them hearing it read to them by Him.
GOSPEL: Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
The beginning of the Gospel of Luke addresses us as "Theophilus" or One who Loves God.
The excerpt jumps to the beginning of Jesus' public Ministry. It is "in the power of the Spirit" that Jesus returns to Galilee, where he begins teaching in synagogues, earning everyone's praise as news of Him spreads the region.
The Evangelist Luke reserves greater detail for the account what happens in Jesus' childhood hometown of Nazareth.
There, in the synagogue, Jesus stands up reads from the Book of Isaiah, revealing that His Coming fulfills a prophecy of Isaiah while He lays out key foundations for His Ministry:
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.
* * *
He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
New Life is at the center of these themes, just as New Life is central to the Easter Season celebrating the Passion, Death, and Resurrection that gains us potential entrance into Eternal Life. Those who cannot see, and are vulnerable as a result, now can see. Those who are oppressed are set free. The poor are given hope through glad tidings. Those held prisoner are released.
Jesus, True God and true Man, is Sent, by God the Father. He has the Spirit of God upon Him, the Holy Spirit. It is the result of God the Father Sending Him that He arrives, to carry out the Mission given Him. It is with the Holy Spirit upon Him that He acts. God is Three Persons and One God, in a way beyond mere human understanding. Here we encounter all three Divine Persons of the One True God.
Note how Scripture is not simply words. This Scripture passage is of a nature that it is something that is fulfilled. Jesus enlivens His listeners and enlivens the Scripture passage by placing its fulfillment within the reality of Him interacting with His listeners. What has been awaited for centuries comes to Life with Jesus, the Living Word of God Made Flesh, arriving and being the One speaking the Word of God that had Prophecied His own Coming.
Jesus fulfilled many Prophecies, so many that Servant of God Bishop Fulton Sheen pointed out that the odds of Jesus not being the Messiah were many millions to one. And Jesus fulfilled multiple prophecies from Isaiah, including the prophecy of the Virgin being with Child, who saves the people from their sins.
The themes of this passage of Isaiah and Luke — a Year of Favor from the Lord, sight to the blind, the lifting of the yoke of poverty, the freeing of the oppressed, more recently would be focused upon under the Pastoral Care of Pope John Paul the Great as themes of the Jubilee Year 2000. They also are central to the New Life granted us through God's Mercy and the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, reaching their ultimate fulfillment in the Second Coming of Christ and the New Heaven and a New Earth that He shall usher in for us.
One might wish that Christ Himself would walk into our own church and read to us a passage about Him, and how it is now being fulfilled by Him being with us. Of course, the Priest stands In Persona Christi, just as Jesus promised to His Apostles "I am with you always" throughout this age, even while we await the Second Coming. Jesus, using the Priest as His Instrument, celebrates the Mass, Jesus Consecrates the Eucharist, Jesus Proclaims the Word of God.
Keywords: Jesus, Catholic, Gospel of Luke, Scroll of Isaiah, Nazareth
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