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.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 72:1-2, 14 and 15bc, 17
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
From fraud and violence he shall redeem them,
and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
May they be prayed for continually;
day by day shall they bless him.
May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
Gospel Acclamation Luke 4:18
Alleluia, alleluia.
The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor
and to proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Luke 4:14-22
Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled.
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.
Reflection
In the Gospel Reading, Luke presents an account of a visit of Jesus to his hometown, Nazareth. The passage that he read in the synagogue is generally considered his Manifesto or Action Plan. In this passage, which he made his own by telling the people that it is being fulfilled as they listen, he outlines the mission entrusted to him by the Father. In many respects, it is a mission with a social impact. Jesus has come for the salvation of humanity but its concrete realization is to be seen in the transformation of the lives of specific social classes of this time.
In the spirit of the Lord, Jesus is to proclaim liberty to those who are captives. There are different forms of captivity so we do not only have to think of those placed in prison. Some people are captives of those who exploit them physically. They have no way of personally liberating themselves if not by the intervention of people of good will. Jesus comes to bring freedom to such people through the proclamation of social justice. Jesus also said he has come to bring sight to the blind. This should not be seen only in reference to the physically blind. Some people are blind to the harm being done to them in society. They need to be enlightened to stand for their rights in society. Some people do not realise that they are making others suffer unjustly. They think they are performing their duties without realising that are abusing the rights of other people. Christ, with the light of his Good News, opens the eyes of these people so that they may act positively.
All that Jesus indicates as his mission is by extension the mission of his disciples. They are the ones to continue his mission of salvation. All Christians have the responsibility of accomplishing the mission of Christ. We can all do this by paying attention to what John tells us in the First Reading. John tells us to love one another because that is the way we know that God loves us. Our love for our brothers and sisters moves us to seek their salvation. Our love for one another makes us stand for social justice when the rights of some people are not being respected.
