THE GOOD NEWS HE ANNOUNCED
We are called to
carry that same freedom and Good News to the world through our lives of faith
and through our words and deeds. This is how closely linked the love of God and
the love of neighbor are.
In today's Gospel
we hear, "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" (Lk 4:18 - 19). Jesus declares the year of
the Lord's favor!
The crowd gathered
in the synagogue to hear Jesus preach and they recognized the Good News He
announced. It's about glad tidings, freedom, and healing to all in need. When
Jesus speaks to them He does not announce this Good News for one particular
calendar year. The Good News 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 through our lives of faith and through our words and deeds. This is how
closely linked the love of God and the love of neighbor are. In the first
Letter of St. John we are reminded that God's love is not merely professed by
us, God's love is lived out through us, with others.
In the Responsorial
Psalm we proclaim a prayer about justice. It was Israel's prayer for its king -
a prayer for right judgment and for the defense of the oppressed. It is a good
prayer for our country's government and for the governments of all countries;
prayer for justice, equity, and liberation. To pray for just structures; for
social awareness; for human concern between all peoples. As human beings and
members of society, we pray that the current of feelings that runs through our bodies
will bring us into understanding and action to the needs of reform. May it lead
to the uprooting of inequality and establish true peace and justice in a world
that is broken by the wrong decisions we have made.
Through our
knowledge and experience of true freedom and the grace of God, we are free to
show that same love of God by our witness of 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, let us also treat each other as family
outside of the Mass!
God wants our love
to overflow into love for all His children!