IN THE SAME DIRECTION

Before he begins to recount Jesus’ activities, Luke wants to make very clear to his readers what is the passion that drives the Prophet from Galilee and what is the goal of his every action. Christians need to know in what direction God’s Spirit pushes Jesus, since following him is precisely walking in the same direction as he did.

Luke describes in full detail what Jesus does in the synagogue of his village: he stands up, takes the holy book, looks himself for a passage from Isaiah, reads the text, closes the book, returns it and sits down. Everyone has to listen attentively to the words chosen by Jesus, since they put forth the task for which he feels sent by God.

Surprisingly, the text does not speak about organizing a more perfect religion or about implanting a more worthy worship, but about communicating to the poorest and most unfortunate liberation, hope, light and grace. This is what he reads: 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. When he finishes, he tells them: Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.

God’s Spirit is in Jesus, sending him to the poor, directing his whole life toward the most needy, most oppressed, most humiliated. We his followers need to work in this same direction. This is the orientation that God, made flesh in Jesus, wants to be imprinted on human history. Those who are last should be the first ones to know this more dignified, more free and more happy life that God want for all his sons and daughters from now on.

We must never forget it. The “option for the poor” is not an invention of twentieth century theologians, nor is it a trend that came into vogue after Vatican II. It is the option of God’s Spirit; it is what animates Jesus’ whole life and what we his followers need to introduce into human history. Said Paul VI: the Church has the duty of assisting the birth of this liberation…, of ensuring that it is complete.

It is not possible to live and announce Jesus Christ unless defense of the least and solidarity with the excluded are the starting point. If what we do and proclaim from within the Church of Jesus is not understood as something good and liberating by those who suffer most, what Gospel are we preaching? Which Jesus are we following? What spirituality are we fostering? To say it clearly: what impression do we have of today’s Church? Are we walking in the same direction as Jesus?

January 24, 2016
3 O.T. (C)
Luke 1, 1-4; 4, 14-21