Jesus in Nazareth

Today's Reflections

Jesus in Nazareth 

http://graceandspace.org

Lk 4:14-22

¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. ¹⁵He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.

¹⁶He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read ¹⁷and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:/ ¹⁸“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,/ ¹⁹and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”/ ²⁰Rolling 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. ²¹He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” ²²And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

Reflection:

In the power of the Spirit. The Gospel tells us of the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. He sweeps people off their feet. The success of his ministry is because he acts “in the power of the Spirit.” In the synagogue of his hometown Nazareth, Jesus declares, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”

The Spirit is the first evangelizer. It is the Spirit who gives power and fruitfulness to our apostolate and ministry. We should constantly invoke the Holy Spirit upon all our activities, as we do at every Eucharistic celebration so that by the Spirit’s power the bread and wine may become the body and blood of Christ.

The great Dominican theologian, Fr. Yves Congar, said that the whole life of the Church should be an epiclesis, an invocation of the Holy Spirit.

Learn by heart a prayer to the Holy Spirit.