The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
1 John 4:19–5:4
Luke 4:14-22
In today's gospel we hear the beautiful words of Isaiah describing almost graphically the mission of Jesus: "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." After reading them, Jesus declares to his hearers: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” If the Nazarenes had been capable of grasping the truth of these words they would have fallen on their knees in adoration and gratitude to God for having chosen their village in all history and of all places on earth, to be the village of his God's incarnation. But alas, this truth was hidden from them.
Today's gospel reminds us of the words in the prologue of John's gospel: "he was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God..." (John 1:11-12).
To each of us he comes. We are already made his own people through the sacrament of Baptism. He offers us liberty from our captivity to sin, sight in order to get us from our blindness to the truth of God's love." We can repeat the tragedy of Nazareth by refusing to let the comfort of our self-assuredness be disturbed. Or we can take the courageous challenge of totally accepting the transforming power of his word. The choice is ours.
If and when we accept the liberating and transforming power of Jesus in our lives, then we become an extension of Jesus’ mission to those whose lives we touch. Then Jesus continues through us, to bring good tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, to open the eyes of the blind, and to set prisoners free from the captivity of sin. Then we fulfill God’s command of love of God and of neighbor about which John tells us in the first reading.
