THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME

Luke 4:14-22

In today’s gospel Jesus has started his public life and he goes from town to town preaching the good news. He came to Nazareth in the synagogue and was invited to read. I do not know if this was accidental or intentional, he read a passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah that says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” In this reading, he tells the people who He is that He is the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah. He says: Today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.

In these words, Jesus presents his mission. He is the one chosen to give meaning and to fulfill the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah, that is, to preach the good news to the poor. Just like Jesus, each one of us was born into this world with a divine purpose. We are not in this world without a cause. We were anointed at our baptism and we have received the Holy Spirit. So we have the same mission as Christ, to preach the good news to all by living our faith; to give sight to the blind, probably not by working miracles, but perhaps by giving them our time our efforts, our energies and by showing concern for them.

There is story of a very pious Christian father who told his son: “My son let us pray to God that God may help our neighbor to get a job and be able to buy medicine for his sick mother.” After a short while, this little boy answered back his father: “Father I know we have money. Let us not disturb God. Let us be the one to give money to our neighbor so that he can buy medicine.”

In our gospel Jesus said: This scripture passage in fulfilled in your hearing today and I am sure that it is still being fulfilled even today as men and women hear this passage. It is our mission in this world to preach Jesus and his gospel. It is our mission not to give up on loving, not to give up our good examples even if the people around us don’t reciprocate. In his book: What is means to be a Christian”, Pope Benedict wrote that if Christianity is going to make any impact in our society today, it must be more than brave. It must be heroic! He continues saying that “In our generation the Christian faith finds itself in a much deeper crisis than at any other time in the past. In this situation it is no solution to shut our eyes in fear in the face of pressing problems, or to simply pass over them. If faith is to survive, then it must be lived.

There was this Hindu who saw a scorpion floundering around in the water. He decided to save it by stretching out his finger but the scorpion stung him. The man still tried to get the scorpion out of the water but the scorpion stung him again. A man nearby told him to stop saving the scorpion that kept stinging him but the Hindu said: “it is the nature of the scorpion to sting. It is my nature to love. Why should I give up my nature to love just because it is the nature of the scorpion to sting?” May the Lord fulfill this scripture in our lives today.