Reflection From

Fr. John

January 26, 2025

This week, we encounter Jesus traveling throughout the region of Galilee and teaching in synagogues. According to St. Luke, Jesus is being praised by all. (Luke 4:15) Jesus arrives in His hometown of Nazareth and begins to teach in the synagogue where He grew up.

This tradition of meeting locally to discuss Scripture and hold services in local synagogues began during the time of the Babylonian exile after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC. It continued after the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, though the temple in Jerusalem remained the primary place of worship and sacrifice.

To be invited to preach in the synagogue was a great honor. Due to His popularity, Jesus was most likely invited to preach and teach in His hometown. This occurred at the start of His public ministry and immediately after He was tempted in the desert. Jesus began by reading from the prophet Isaiah, “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.” (Isaiah 61:1)

The verses proclaimed by Jesus were possibly the most well known verses regarding the coming of the Messiah. Jesus deliberately chose these verses for His teaching. They spoke most clearly of the miracles that the Messiah would perform. These miracles and the signs that accompanied the coming of the Messiah were what the Jewish people had awaited for hundreds of years. You can imagine their shock and surprise when after reading one of the most well known passages on the coming of the Messiah, Christ mentions, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:21) He, about whom the Scripture was written, was present. The very author of Sacred Scripture now proclaimed its fulfillment. The coming of the Messiah was no longer a far off event or something of the distant future. No, the Messiah, the long awaited hero, had arrived.

This is as true for us as it was for the Jewish people who heard Jesus proclaim these words over two thousand years ago. We too live in the age of the Messiah. Jesus Christ has come, and He has died and rose from the dead. He didn’t just live two thousand years ago. He is always present with us through the gifts of the Sacraments and throughout our day. He has left us the Memorial of His Passion, Death and Resurrection in the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass. He is physically present with us through the gift of the Holy Eucharist. May we not live as a people who have not seen the Messiah, but rather let us live in and acknowledge His presence. For as St. Paul mentions, ‘“In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.’ Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2)

Father John

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