January 23, 2022

Reflection for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Today we read the beginning of St. Luke’s Gospel where he is writing to assure his friend Theophilus (who was he?) that everything he had been hearing about Jesus was true. There may be doubts in the mind of Theophilus but there is a fire in the heart of Luke to convince his friend of the truth about Jesus, the Son of God.

 

Luke begins his Gospel with the story of the annunciation and the infancy of Jesus, and then quickly shifts in chapter 4:14-21 to His public ministry.  Imagine Our Lord walking into the synagogue in the town where he had grown up and reaching for the scroll of the Jewish scriptures that held the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and ‘finding’ the passage that foretells the coming of the Messiah in the power of the Holy Spirit—not to slay the enemies of God or to establish an army of warriors, but to free the imprisoned, to restore sight to the blind, to release the bonds of those held captive and to bring good news to the poor.

 

Then Jesus looks into the eyes of every person in the Congregation and says, in effect, ‘Here I am: the Promised One who will do all this for you.

 

Had I been in that synagogue that day I hope I would have recognized myself in at least one of those categories: blind to my own need of conversion, held captive by my selfish will, sinking in the bad news of my own spiritual poverty. I hope I would have stood and said to Him, Here I am: I beg You to pour out Your Spirit over me and heal me in all the places where I need healing.

 

So today in prayer, I think I will place myself in the synagogue of my soul and do just that. I will cry out, Here I am. Do in me what you came to earth to do. My heart is ready, O God. My heart is ready. I’ve been waiting for You all my life. 

 

For I do not want His life on earth, nor His death, to be in vain for me.

God bless you.

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“With Mary, our lives continually proclaim the greatness of the Lord and the joy experienced in rendering service to Him.”

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