Hear and Share

Today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.

Pretty bold words from the young rabbi-prophet.

Claiming to be the embodied fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy.

Quite a tall order he was setting for himself to live up to.

Claiming to be anointed with the Spirit of the Lord,

To bring relief to the poor.

Claiming to be sent by God,

To liberate captives,

Give sight to the blind,

And free the oppressed.

If we were sitting in that synagogue on that Sabbath we might have wondered—

Just like most in that assembly did—

Who does this guy think he is.

But we benefit from the perspective of history.

We have the full story.

We know that he delivered on his claims.

We know who he really was.

We know that he was not only anointed with the Spirit of the Lord.

He was the Lord, the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity.

One in being with the Father and the Spirit.

And he was sent by the Father to bring relief to the poor.

Not only the materially poor, but also all of us who are poor in Spirit.

A strengthened Spirit to pursue what’s truly important in this life.

He did liberate those he met who were held captive and oppressed by disease and disability—

Through physical, mental and spiritual healings.

And he also sacrificed himself to liberate all of us from the captivity of sin.

Removing the walls that held us captive and separated from the Father.

He freed us from the effects of oppression in this life.

By teaching us and showing us that what matters most is the next life.

That we should Seek first the Kingdom of God.

He freed us from the oppression of the numerous, burdensome, strictly enforced Jewish laws.

By giving us just two simple commandments.

Love God with all your heart, soul and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.

He gave sight to the blind

Both then and now.

Both literally and figuratively.

Jesus did all that.

He delivered on his claims.

He fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah.

He could have proclaimed the work complete, and made it so.

But he chose to leave some of the work for us.

The continuation of building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

To do that, he draws us into one body.

He calls us his Church.

And he empowers us and calls on us to continue that work.

He continues to bring sight to the blind.

By opening our eyes to our blessings, our responsibilities and our mission.

We too are anointed with the Spirit of God for that mission—at Baptism.

We too are sent forth, by God, to bring relief to the poor.

To bring liberty to captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed.

If all of that was a tall order for Jesus.

Even our scaled-down mission would be an impossible order for any one of us to accomplish alone.

But he gives us the Spirit and the grace to try.

As we heard in the letter to the Corinthians, he gives us our individual talents.

And when we bring our gifts together as one body, individual members working as one Church,

We can accomplish far more than we could acting alone.

Hard as we may be trying, we still have to wonder, Am I doing enough?

What more can I do?

What more should I be doing?

How can I do my part to build the Kingdom of God?

The organized Church helps and guides us in doing our part.

It helps us find those opportunities for service.

Helps us aggregate and multiply the benefits of our contributions.

Whether those contributions be from our time our talent or our treasure.

One of those opportunities is here for us now.

The Cardinal’s Appeal.

It’s an annual opportunity to share our material treasure.

To help meet the spiritual, educational, and temporal needs

Of parishes, schools and the people throughout our Archdiocese.

An opportunity to give back from the material gifts we’ve received.

Our bulletin gives more information on the good works we can support 

through the Cardinal’s Appeal.

And next week at Mass we’ll hear Cardinal Wuerl’s recorded appeal—asking us for our support.

In the mean time we can consider what part of our material wealth we’re willing and able to share.

What financial contribution we might share to support the work of building the Kingdom.

That scripture passage from Isaiah— repeated in our Gospel—is a good summary of our continuing work:

To bring relief to the poor.

To free the captives and the oppressed.

And to bring sight to the blind.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus stood in the synagogue and said

Today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.

Indeed, his work is now complete. 

In today’s world , it’s up to us to continue his work.

In this world today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your sharing. 

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21                                 Read this Scripture @usccb.org