Sisters of St. Mary of Namur

January 24, 2010

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

     Actions speak louder than words.  Eyewitnesses to those actions are hard put to describe what they actually experience. Luke stresses (Luke 1:2) that eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have given us this living tradition of what Jesus said and did to make real the promises of God.

     The section which is omitted describes the events in the early life of Jesus.  Today's Gospel text presents Jesus' return to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. For Luke, it is important to recognize that Jesus' preaching in the synagogue is life-changing for the people who hear him.  In his hometown of Galilee, Jesus' continues his custom of Sabbath attendance in the synagogue. Just as the proclamation of the word in Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 810, calls all the people to come together as community to be hearers and doers of the word, so does Jesus' proclamation of Is. 61:1,2.  What the community of Israel had been called to by the prophet is now enfleshed in Jesus, the prophet.  His mission as the promised Anointed One of God calls him to 1. preach the gospel to the poor; 2. help people to be free to really live; 3. perform acts of mercy; 4. work for fair and just social structures; 5. celebrate "today" and every day as the day of God's saving love and mercy.

     What did it mean for Jesus to be able to say this and what does it mean for us TODAY as his disciples? How is this word/experience of the Gospel lived out in us as we hear news of the disaster in Haiti or war in Afghanistan or the economic hardships of the people around us? What is God's Word calling me to be and do?  What is God's Word calling us to be and do? 

                                  -Sister Mary Laura Lesniak