may know the refreshment, rest, and peace of God's heavenly kingdom . . . that all those who grieve may know God's comfort and consolation . . .We pray.

For the sick, especially for all those who have asked for our prayers . . . for healing for all those who are sick . . . for courage for those in pain . . . for those in hospitals, nursing homes or confined to their homes by illness or infirmity . . . for those who feel forgotten . . . We pray.

Ears to hear and Eyes to see

Jesus reserved his inaugural address for his first trip home to Nazareth after the tumultuous experience of his baptism in the Jordan and his time in the wilderness. He came home and - as a faithful, observant Jew - went to the synagogue on the Sabbath.

He already had a reputation as someone singled out by the Baptizer. The synagogue was crowded. It had been arranged that he would do the reading from the Torah scrolls. But no one was prepared for the audacity Jesus showed that day. He selected from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah a familiar messianic text: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me and he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor."

He read the words, paused, then announced that this text was about himself. This word was fulfilled in their hearing. The status quo was about to be disrupted by new possibility. If the reign of God was at hand, then all other reigns and rules were about to fall. Jesus announced not just some private conversion or spiritual renewal, but a program of social transformation that would produce a new economy, a neighbourhood attuned to the needs of the poor and vulnerable, a true religion of compassion whose hallmark would be open table fellowship, reconciliation within families and the restoration of outcasts to the community.

On a Sabbath day at the synagogue in Nazareth, that promised servant, the Lucan Jesus, roused his listeners as he laid out for them the purpose of his life and the reason for his death. From then on, good news, liberation and healing would characterize his mission and that of the community that took up his cause after his passing. In this Gospel, Luke has combined his own rationale for writing with Jesus' reason for coming into the world. Both reasons were to offer the good news of salvation to a world so much in need of its message.

Luke acknowledged the existence of other versions of the good news while affirming his desire to lend certainty to those who were hearing the good news without the benefit of experiencing the earthly Jesus. Luke would repeat this intention at the beginning of his second volume, Acts.

The original challenge of that day in Nazareth remains before us: a radical program of social transformation that is good news for the poor, freedom for captives, sight to the blind, new hope for the oppressed. Five centuries earlier, when Ezra and Nehemiah read the word of God to the people just returned from exile, they wept at the challenge of conversion before them, and they wept also with joy that God had restored them to the covenant.

Twenty centuries after Jesus' inaugural address in Nazareth, we stand in our own moment of challenge. The word of God comes to us no less than to those in the past. Jesus, now risen from the dead and our source of life, is in our midst, in the word, in the assembly, on the altar and in the presider, proclaiming God's intentions for the world. Where there are ears that hear and hearts that welcome the Gospel, these words will come true in our hearing.

Through the Gospel narratives we hear the echo of the positive impact Jesus made through his manner of being. In Jesus, women and children found a welcome; the poor found someone who loved and defended them and sought to save them simply because they were in need. Through his words and good actions, Jesus was able to establish a relationship with the least ones of his society so that they were given the desire and the strength to try to break the chains that robbed them of their freedom.

Jesus' followers were continuously impressed by his genuineness, his justice, his mercy - and above all, his goodness. His impact on the individual and collective consciousness of others continues to be good news. We who live in the interim between Jesus' first impact on earth and the coming of his ultimate impact are charged with carrying out his agenda. We are to be good news, as he was, in the very manner of our being.

We are charged not only to point out the needs of the poor, but to work to fulfill them. We are not only to proclaim a coming liberation, but to labor diligently in the manner of Jesus so that freedom will be enjoyed, here and now, by everyone.

That all our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, Jan. 26

Weekday 8:30 a.m. - † Saverio Giusti

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 27

Weekday 8:30 a.m. - † Norman Tivy

THURSDAY, Jan. 28

Weekday 8:30 a.m. - † Lourthumary Thomas

FRIDAY, Jan. 29

Weekday 8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

may know the refreshment, rest, and peace of God's heavenly kingdom . . . that all those who grieve may know God's comfort and consolation . . .We pray.

For the people of Haiti. . .for those who have lost their lives and for those who are now survivors. . .for the success of all the relief efforts underway and for those who are assisting the victims of this disaster. . .We pray. . .

For the sick, especially for all those who have asked for our prayers . . . for healing for all those who are sick . . . for courage for those in pain . . . for those who feel forgotten . . . We pray.

TWO NEW ERAS

Two men unroll papyrus scrolls and read them to the people. Their proclamations signal the beginning of a vast new era. One is Ezra the scribe and the other is Jesus of Nazareth. Four centuries separate them.

Ezra is in Jerusalem after the return of the Jewish exiles from captivity in Babylon. Ancient Israel was captured by the Babylonian empire 586 years before Christ. The Babylonians took Jerusalem itself and demolished the great temple built centuries before by Solomon. They deported the majority of productive citizens to Babylon, leaving peasants to run the holy city if they could.

Cyrus the Great, king of Persia (now Iran), came into possession of Babylon fifty years into this captivity and he let the captives go. Many had switched their faith by this time in favour of foreign gods and customs, but the remainder, perhaps close to 5,000, made ready to return to a Jerusalem many did not even remember. Ezra, priest and scribe, led one of the many caravans making the four month journey across the desert. They arrived to find Jerusalem a ruined city with widespread moral decay.

Reconstruction of a city or country is immensely difficult - think of Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans and now the prospect of rebuilding Haiti as modern day challenges still facing the world today.

Ezra worked long and hard to bring back this rag-tag nation and at last a new temple was finished in 516 B.C. The ruined city walls were rebuilt. Ezra stood up on a high wooden platform so he could be heard and seen and he "read plainly" from the papyrus that held "the book of the law." He started at daybreak and he continued until midday. Not only did they have their city again, but also they had heard the Word of God again, and finally there was again a temple where they could worship. The new era had begun.

Four centuries later we find Jesus making a similar return into Galilee, the region where he grew up. He has just been baptized and has spent time in the desert. Now, "in the power of the Spirit," Luke says, he journeys back to his home town of Nazareth. Like Ezra, he takes up a papyrus scroll, this one containing the book of Isaiah - much of which had been written during the Jewish exile.

This action in the synagogue is the first one of his public life. He proclaims that the Lord has sent him to "bring glad tidings to the poor . . . , to let the oppressed go free," to proclaim a time of favour from the Lord. This is what Ezra and Nehemiah had done, but Jesus' mission is much, much more.

A far greater era has begun. He sits down, now at the same level as the people: he is in their midst. He says almost casually, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." His mission is to rebuild their hearts, not just their city, to return them to God, their home. Do they accept this new era? Do we?

In today's sacred texts the praying assembly is presented with rich theological fare, where the loving lives of Jeremiah and Jesus are wrapped around Paul's celebration of the virtue of love.

Paul's address to the Corinthians is quite beautiful and lyrical - he lifts his readers to the heights of idealism and takes their imaginations to that perfect place where love endures to conquer all with its grace and generosity of spirit. Jeremiah and Jesus illustrate most poignantly through their lives that love not only sings and celebrates; love also answers God's call, despite the difficulty that will entail.

In Jeremiah's case, love meant accepting the criticism that he was too young to speak and too unimportant to warrant the serious attention of others who thought themselves wiser and more experienced. Love for God and for God's word would lead Jeremiah to accept a mission he did not choose. Love would cause him to accept that the seductive power of the word was not to be silenced. Despite all the risks, Jeremiah was to speak the word of God so pointedly that his contemporaries would want to crush him.

Through his great love for God, Jeremiah would know great suffering, but through it all he would also know the presence and deliverance of a loving God. Love for God and for God's people would also lead Jesus to persevere in proclaiming a Gospel that was often regarded as an unpopular challenge by unwilling listeners. Love led Jesus to suffer loneliness, rejection, personal injury and even death for the sake of the mission he had come to fulfill.

In today's Gospel, love led Jesus to dare to proclaim the fulfilment of Isaiah's proclamation in his hometown synagogue. Love empowered him when he was confronted by people who allowed their familiarity with him to breed contempt and would not accept him or his message. Love also motivated Jesus to reflect God's compassion for those who were not considered to be among God's chosen. Even a widow in Zarephath and a leper in Syria were loved by God, and love prompted Jesus to be similarly ecumenical and indiscriminate in his loving.

As we listen to Paul's celebration of love and remember the loving witness of Jeremiah and Jesus, each one of us is challenged to examine the character and constancy of our own love. Very often, couples choose to express their own new love for one another by having Paul's lyrical celebration of love read at their wedding.

Only later, however, will the happy couple learn that other verses to this song will be written as they live out their lives together. They will be called upon to prove that their promise to "bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things" is more than words, more than a feeling.

Love is to be steady when circumstances become unstable, when jobs are lost, when home is robbed, when the future seems frighteningly insecure. Love is faithful despite the temptation to stray. Love is ready to forgive and makes valiant efforts at forgetting the hurtful aspects of life together. Love is a sure shelter against danger. Love is a rock to hold onto when the wedding vows about sickness and health, for richer and for poorer become everyday realities. Love holds out even when nest eggs are forced to hatch too soon. Love survives when old age claims looks and memory and fervour.

Marital relationships are not the only opportunities for making real the lyrical love of Paul's hymn. We can apply these words to the love of parents for children, children for parents and friends and relatives for one another. Love is not a feeling but a matter of the will. Love is in the decisions we make, and the harder the decision, in spite of the feelings, the greater the love. Jeremiah knew this. Jesus and Paul knew this. How about you?

That all our beloved dead, especially

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 3

Weekday 8:30 a.m. - † James O'Neill

FRIDAY, Feb. 5

Weekday 8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

may know the refreshment, rest, and peace of God's heavenly kingdom . . . that all those who grieve may know God's comfort and consolation . . .We pray.

For the people of Haiti. . .for those who have lost their lives and for those who are now survivors. . .for the success of all the relief efforts underway and for those who are assisting the victims of this disaster. . .We pray. . .

For the sick, especially for all those who have asked for our prayers . . . for healing for all those who are sick . . . for courage for those in pain . . . for those who feel forgotten . . . We pray.

The Other Shoe Drops!   Luke 4:21-30

This week's Gospel carries on from where we left off last week and documents the people's reaction to Jesus' message. A HINT: they will try to throw him off a cliff. To see why, we need only look at how bold Jesus was. First he searched out a prediction of the Messiah from the book of Isaiah. Here are the words he read: (Isaiah 61:1-3).

Apparently, the people loved him for this, and for the words he spoke to them. But then he applied the reading to himself. "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." This was a known reference to the Messiah. They knew, therefore, that Jesus was claiming to be Messiah.

The Nazareth synagogue was stunned. They already knew him well because he had grown up in their midst. He was the carpenter's son, the one they had seen weekly in this same synagogue. Why in the world would a local boy come up with such a silly idea?

He had travelled since growing up. Once, at the Jordan river, he had received baptism, and right after it the heavens opened up and the Holy Spirit descended upon him and a voice from the heavens said, "You are my beloved son, and in you I am well pleased" (Luke 3:21-22). His life was different from then on.

He could no longer remain simply an ordinary worker in Nazareth. Now that he had heard the Father's voice out loud, his ministry began. He was the anointed servant of God. Immediately he fled into the desert to brood and pray. "Who am I," he must have asked, "that I am called the Beloved of God? What does this mean"?

He was attracted to the wrong answers, ones suggested by the devil. Turn his closeness to God into satisfaction, into power, into reputation. He was authentically tempted, but each time he refused. Back he came to Nazareth, now in the power of the Spirit, as Luke says.

We can see why he selected that passage from Isaiah in the synagogue. As he told them, Isaiah's words were about him! He had heard it from God at his baptism. How were the Nazarenes supposed to have any understanding of this?

They saw him as a madman claiming equality with God. He was insulting his home town, his people Israel, and his God. Jesus answers them with "No prophet is accepted in his own native place." He states to their faces that neither Elijah nor Elisha could work their miracles in Israel, but went elsewhere to do them.

Is there any wonder the synagogue members went from admiration to shock and anger? They dragged him out to the cliff, planning to throw him over. He escaped somehow, but look what his bold talk had done! This scene forecasts the whole life of Jesus. First loved and accepted, then dragged to his death.

In the coming months, we will see all his actions. Now he is filled with the Holy Spirit. What will he do? We must find out, because that same Spirit is offered to us daily. What will we do?