THE GOOD NEWS HE ANNOUNCED
In the
Gospel, today, we hear a passage from the prophet Isaiah, “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” (Is 61:1; Lk 4:18). Jesus declares the year of the Lord’s favor!
The
crowd gathered in the synagogue to hear Jesus preach, for they recognize the
Good News He announces. It’s about glad
tidings, freedom, and healing to all in need. When Jesus speaks to them at the
synagogue, He does not announce the Good News as though it were only for one
particular calendar year. This Good News – the Gospel – is present and
fulfilled in Him at all times and in all places. We are called to carry that
same freedom and Good News to the world by our life and faith, and through our
words and deeds. This is how closely linked the love of God and the love of
neighbor are. The first Letter of St. John reminds us that God’s love is not
merely professed by us. God’s love is lived out by us with others.
In the
Responsorial Psalm, we pray about justice. It was Israel’s prayer for its king
– a prayer for right judgment and for the defense of the oppressed. “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”
(Ps 72:1-2). It is a good prayer for our country’s government and for the
governments of all countries. It is a prayer for justice, equity and
liberation; a prayer for just structures, social awareness and for human
concerns between all peoples. As a human being, a member of society, and the
current of feelings that run through our whole body, may it bring us into
understanding and action to the needs of reform. To uproot inequality and
establish true peace and justice in a world that is broken by the wrong
decisions we have made.
To know
true freedom and the grace of God allows us, who have been set free, to show
that same love of God through our love for one another. May what we do during
Mass be reflected in our lives. Since we
address each other as brother and sister in the Liturgy, may we treat each
other as family outside of Mass. Pope Francis asserted, in his apostolic
exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, “The whole Church…has to go forth to everyone
without exception. But to whom should She go first? When we read the Gospel we
find a clear indication: not so much our friends and wealthy neighbors, but above
all the poor and the sick, those who are usually despised and overlooked.”
God
wants our love to overflow into love for all His children!