“Today this Scripture is fulfilled,”

Jesus declares that he is that prophet, that he has been “anointed” by the Spirit and sent

by the Father, particularly to four categories of people:

the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed.

His mission is to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,” that is, a Jubilee!

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊   

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Brothers and sisters,

We want you not to be mistaken about those who are already asleep,

lest you grieve as do those who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose;

it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus.

God will bring them together, with Jesus, and for his sake.

 

By the same word of the Lord, we assert this:

those of us who are to be alive at the Lord's coming will not go ahead of those who are already asleep.

When the command by the archangel's voice is given, the Lord, himself,

will come down from heaven, while the divine trumpet call is sounding.

 

Then, those who have died in the Lord will rise first; as for us who are still alive,

we will be brought along with them, in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the celestial world.

And we will be with the Lord forever.

So then, comfort one another with these words.

 

Ps 96:1 & 3, 4-5, 11-12, 13 The Lord comes to judge the earth.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      

Luke 4:16-30

When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up,

he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, as he usually did.

He stood up to read, and they handed him the book of the prophet Isaiah.

Jesus then unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me, to bring good news to the poor;

to proclaim liberty to captives; and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed;

and to announce the Lord's year of mercy."

 

Jesus then rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant and sat down;

and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

Then he said to them, "Today, these prophetic words come true, even as you listen."

All agreed with him, and were lost in wonder while he spoke of the grace of God.

Nevertheless, they asked, "Who is this but Joseph's Son?"

So he said, "Doubtless you will quote me the saying: Doctor, heal yourself!

Do here, in your town, what they say you did in Capernaum."

 

Jesus added, "No prophet is honored in his own country.

Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah,

when the heavens withheld rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land.

Yet, Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon.

There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet; and no one was healed except Naaman, the Syrian."

 

On hearing these words, the whole assembly became indignant.

They rose up and brought him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built,

intending to throw him down the cliff. But he passed through their midst and went his way.

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"These prophetic words come true."

"Today, these prophetic words come true, even as you listen." The Word of God is "living and effective" (Heb 4:12),

and so just as the words of Holy Scripture were being fulfilled as they listened to Jesus in the synagogue,

so now, as we listen to him speaking to us in the Scriptures, "these prophetic words come true."

The Scriptures are not simply a record of history or only a description of God's intervention in the dim and distant past.

 

The various forms of writing, such as history, letter, poem or parable,

are all presented to us to show the continuing action of God in the world and in the lives of his beloved creation;

an action that touches the past, the present and the future.

 

At first, the people of Nazareth accept Jesus' message, but then they begin to doubt his divine mission.

How could God have chosen the son of the carpenter from their ordinary, little town?

Surely not! Likewise, we might be tempted to doubt God's continuing action in our ordinary,

daily lives, but he is always at work, freeing us from sin, enlightening us

with his wisdom and enriching our lives with his love.