Proclaiming in weakness

Wow. I just LOVE today's readings.

Our Lord's confrontation with his former neighbors at the end of today's Gospel (Luke 4:16-30) offers us both great encouragement and also a good reality check as we ourselves strive to grow in the grace and the wisdom of God in the midst of a skeptical world.

But the words that most move my heart and stir my soul are first the words that our Lord reads from the book of the prophet Isaiah (61:1-2a):

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.

How wonderful it would have been to be sitting there in the synagogue as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God the Father, pronounced those words.

Rolling up the scroll,
he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue
looked intently at him.

He said to them,
"Today this Scripture passage
is fulfilled in your hearing."

But these words are more than just incarnational nostalgia: they are empowering, challenging words for each one of us - words to be repeated over and over in our minds and in our hearts as we strive to carry out the mission to which Christ calls us.

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.

Likewise, although in second place, the words of St. Paul in today's first reading (1 Corinthians 2:1-5) are empowering, challenging words for each one of us - weak-minded sinners that we are, called be living witnesses of Christ and his truth:

When I came to you, brothers,
proclaiming the mystery of God,
I did not come with sublimity of words
or of wisdom.

For I resolved while I was with you
to know nothing
except Jesus Christ,
and him crucified.

I came to you in weakness
and fear
and much trembling,
and my message and my proclamation
were not with persuasive words of wisdom,
but with a demonstration of spirit
and power,
so that your faith might rest
not on human wisdom
but on the power of God.

These too are words to repeat over and over in our minds and in our hearts as we strive to carry out the mission to which Christ calls us.

By the grace of God and the Spirit of the Lord, in the face of our weakness and our unworthiness, may you and I always be faithful in living and proclaiming the truth of Christ.

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.