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Jesus' Inaugural Discourse by Sr Renee Dreiling ~ January 10, 2008 |
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1 John 4:19-5:4 Luke 4:14-22
Today we see Jesus inaugurating his public ministry at Nazareth in his hometown synagogue. When the scroll was handed to him he was supposed to read from one of the normal Sabbath selections but instead he unrolled the scroll to Isaiah 61 and announced that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, that he was anointed to bring glad tidings to the poor by means of proclaiming liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners. As Jesus proclaimed that this Scripture passage was fulfilled in their hearing, he takes the command given to him and places it now on us. The passage from Isaiah really referred to the jubilee year—the 50th year when all debts were remitted, all property returned to its original owner and the land was to lie fallow. Whatever grew was to belong to everyone. Jesus took this beautiful ideal—reserved for every 50 years and observed only symbolically or by some limited gestures and turned it into a continuous way of life. Jesus didn’t interfere with the rights of private property, but frequently transcended those rights by the higher law of charity. On our part, this same Scripture passage is being fulfilled in our hearing! It is challenging our rights and our possessions! It is interfering with our use of time. We are being anointed to reach out to the poor who are sent to us for care. Each of us is sent to free others from their captivity. Normally the need is small and the demand upon us is reasonable. By our continuous little yeses we strengthen ourselves for the day when the commandment of love makes bigger demands on us. And as John tells us in the first reading, this love became incarnate in Jesus. When we believe that Jesus took on our flesh, then we will love others and this great commandment of love will become firmly established in us. Then nothing can intimidate us or interfere with our expression of love and we will as John says, “have conquered the world.” |