Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Upon Me

January 10, 2008

Thursday after Epiphany

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. I John 4:19-20

“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.” Luke 4:18-19

Piety

A Hollowed Space to Be Filled

By William Breault, SJ

A cup must be empty before it can be filled.

If it is already full, it can’t be filled again except by emptying it out.

In order to fill anything, there must be a hollowed out space.

Otherwise it can’t receive.

This is especially true of God’s word.

In order to receive it, we must be hollowed out.

We must be capable of receiving it,

emptied of the false self and its endless demands.

When Christ came, there was no room in the inn.

It was full. The inn is a symbol of the heart.

God’s word, Christ, can take root only in a follow.

(From Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits, edited by Michael Harter, SJ. Chicago: Jesuit Way, an imprint of Loyola Press, 2005)

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/011008.shtml

Are you prepared to face the challenge of the Nazareth manifesto?

“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.” Luke 4:18-19

Placed right after the Spirit’s descent on Jesus in Luke 3, Jesus now announces here – in his very first sermon – that He will begin his public ministry. To define that work, Jesus relies upon Isaiah and announces his intentions to the world: “to bring glad tidings to the poor.” The notes to the New American Bible point out that “more than any other gospel writer Luke is concerned with Jesus’ attitude toward the economically and socially poor. At times, the poor in Luke's gospel are associated with the downtrodden, the oppressed and afflicted, the forgotten and the neglected and it is they who accept Jesus' message of salvation.”

See how Jesus talks in the present active tense. See how Jesus talks of all the poor, not just the poor of Israel. All the prisoners. All the blind. All the oppressed. This made the people in Nazareth very uncomfortable. Jesus is not promising some distant change in order to get elected. He is saying change is upon us with his presence. Everything he does from this point forward lives out this new reality. His active presence in the world changes and transforms everything.

Action

The lectionary pairs this passage from Luke 4 with a familiar message from John…a message which reminds us that we love because God loved us first. Because He loved us first, we now have a responsibility to love others. So the mission which was fulfilled by Jesus now passes to us.

Now the Spirit of the Lord is now upon me. And upon you.

Now it is up to us to bring glad tidings to the poor.

Now it is up to us to proclaim liberty to captives.

Now it is up to us to recover sight to the blind.

Now it is up to us to let the oppressed go free.

Now it is up to us to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

We all love Jesus when he gives us what we want. Multiplying the loaves and fishes. Curing the blind. Calming the seas. The sticking point comes when Jesus challenges us to reach out to those on the edge, to those beyond the boundaries of our own community and self interest. There are people who find the Gospels more radical than anything written by Karl Marx, Che Guevera, and Ho Chi Minh.

So now is the time to take a stand like Jesus does in his hometown, even though his own neighbors will reject him. John reminds us that we must love each other because if we don’t then we can not love God. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has another way of expressing our need to take the side of the oppressed like Jesus: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

What will you proclaim? What tasks has the spirit placed upon you?

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