Twenty Second Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Lk 4: 16-30
Jesus 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. They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’” And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
HOPE AND LIVE: Jesus Christ brings to the world the Good News that there is hope beyond the grave. For this reason, Jesus has come to the world to liberate us from the power of sin and death. This is already fulfilled as Jesus has finished the work on the cross of Calvary. This is the message of hope and life. Those who are without hope grieve bitterly, and for them all is lost. Life has no meaning other than ending in the grave. For those ignorant of the Good News, death becomes the end of everything. The resurrection on the other hand is hope of all the faithful both living and dead. That is the core of what Jesus comes to announce. Death and sin are defeated through the resurrection of Jesus. This is what the world needs to hear.
PRAYER: Thank you God for giving us hope beyond the grave in Jesus’ name.
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BORN TO EVANGELIZE: Every Christian through of Sacrament of Baptism is anointed to evangelize through. Jesus, felt deep within Himself that he has been anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to bring glad tidings to the poor. He not only preached the good news to the poor, but gave Himself up for them. Pope Francis says that we need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the saving power at work in their lives and to put them at the centre of the Church’s pilgrim way. We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them (EG.198). In every Christian community, the poor should feel at home. Would not this approach be the greatest and most effective presentation of the good news of the Kingdom?
DAILY GOSPEL 