GOD'S WORD 2020: DAILY REFLECTIONS LITURGICAL DIARY

GOD’S WORD DAILY REFLECTIONS

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2020

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Editor: Michael Goonan SSP Associate Editor: Julie Whiteford Contributors: January

Fr John O’Connor

February

Karan Varker RSC

August

1-15 Flora Ricupero PBVM 16-31 Frances Hayes PBVM

March

Robert Nixon OSB

September Dominic Vellaiparambil SSP

April

Elizabeth Young RSM

October

May

Michael Goonan SSP

November Kym Harris OSB

June

Brian Grenier CFC

December Michael Goonan SSP

July

Maria Pineda (vdmf)*

Lewis Harwood FSC

*with assistance from Louise Byrne (vdmf), Kylie Cullen (vdmf), Thomas Redmond, Molly Porter GOD’S WORD 2020 ISBN: 978-1-925494-36-5 Copyright © St Pauls Publications 2020 Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible, published and © 1966, by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. are used by permission of the publishers Cover design and internal layout by Domenika Fairy Illustrations by Dorothy Woodward RSJ Cover icon of Peter Walking on the Water to Jesus (Mt 14:22-32) was written by the hand of Dahlia Herring. All rights reserved.

Artwork: 1 January, Our Lady of Vladimir (12th century); 10 April, Christ on the Cross,

by Carl Heinrich Bloch, c. 1871; 29 June, Sts Peter and Paul by El Greco, c. 1590; 6 August, Transfiguration by Cristofano Gherardi, 1555; 2 October, Guardian Angel by Pietro da Cortona, 1656; 1 November, All Saints by Fra Angelico, c. 1420; 25 December, Nativity of Jesus by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1473-1475. All artwork in the public domain, and sourced through Wikimedia Commons.

Published by St Pauls Publications P O Box 906, Strathfield NSW 2135, Australia www.stpauls.com.au Email: sales@stpauls.com.au Tel: 02 9394 3400 Printed in China by Everbest ST PAULS PUBLICATIONS is an activity of the priests and brothers of the Society of St Paul who place at the centre of their lives the mission of evangelisation through the modern means of communication.

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FOREWORD The Catholic Church in Australia is now moving into the final stages of the discernment process in preparation for the first session of Plenary Council 2020, to be held in Adelaide from 4-11 October. The second session will be held in Sydney in May 2021. For some time, we have been considering what the Spirit is asking of us as a Church community, and now we are pondering together the question of how God is calling us to be a Christcentred Church.

As we continue this discernment we are called to ‘listen to what the Spirit is saying …’ (Rev 2:7). We hope that God’s Word 2020 will enable our readers to listen to the voice of the Spirit through reflection on the Scripture readings set down for each day.

As we attune our listening to hear the voice of the Spirit in the Scriptures, our minds and hearts are also attuned to hear what the Spirit is saying in and through the members of our communities.

We thank all of our reflection writers for sharing their lived experience of the Spirit with us. A special welcome to our first New Zealand contributor, Fr John O’Connor, from the Diocese of Christchurch.

We are grateful to all of our readers who have embraced God’s Word and we welcome any feedback with suggestions for improvement. We pray that, through this liturgical diary, you will continue to find in God’s Word ‘a lamp for your feet and a light for your path’ (Psalm 119 [118]: 105).

Fr Michael Goonan SSP Editor

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Jesus Heals the Blind Man (John 9:1-12). Photo by Freedom Studio / Shutterstock.com

PRAYERS FOR HEALING Lord, you invite all who are burdened to come to you.

Allow your healing hand to heal me.

Touch my soul with your compassion for others; touch my heart with your courage and infinite love for all; touch my mind with your wisdom, and may my mouth always proclaim your praise.

Teach me to reach out to you in all my needs, and help me to lead others to you by my example.

Most loving Heart of Jesus, bring me health in body and spirit that I may serve you with all my strength.

Touch gently this life which you have created, now and forever.

Amen.

I pray for the seriously ill who suffer, and for those for whom there may be little hope.

Let me be conscious of them, unknown to me though they be, For I am one with them in our human condition.

When I am too concerned with me, let my prayer turn to them.

When I feel tired, let my prayer earn them some rest.

When I have aches and pains, may my prayer offer them some relief.

When I feel weak, may my prayer give them strength.

When I am depressed, may my prayer raise up their spirits.

When I lose hope, may my prayer brighten their day.

Uplift them, Lord, by your kindly presence, For in their helplessness, you alone can sustain them. Amen.

(James M. FitzPatrick, OMI)

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January

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WEDNESDAY

Mary, The Holy Mother of God Solemnity White

Numbers 6: 22-27 The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘Say this to Aaron and his sons: “This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face and bring you peace.”

This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.’

Psalm 66: 2-3, 5, 6, 8. R. v. 2 May God bless us in his mercy.

Galatians 4: 4-7 When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons. The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’, and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave anymore; and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir.

Luke 2: 16-21 The shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.

When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.

Reflection We start the New Year with hopes and with resolutions. Perhaps it is even more helpful to begin this New Year focusing on what Jesus desires for you. Our hopes and even the resolutions we consider to be ambitious are weak and cautious alongside the blessings God is giving to us. Mary discovered this when she was asked to be the Mother of God. As a holy young woman she often pondered her own life in her heart, but now she enters a new phase of faith experiencing God present in her own being.

The struggles or failures of the year now past may still be a burden and problem for you.

But today at the threshold of this new year God is asking something quite new of you: not to focus so much on your life and what has been with its ups and downs, but to hear Jesus speak directly to you: ‘May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace’.

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1 John 2: 22-28 The man who denies that Jesus is the Christ – he is the liar, he is Antichrist; and he is denying the Father as well as the Son, because no one who has the Father can deny the Son, and to acknowledge the Son is to have the Father as well. Keep alive in yourselves what you were taught in the beginning: as long as what you were taught in the beginning is alive in you, you will live in the Son and in the Father; and what is promised to you by his own promise is eternal life. This is all that I am writing to you about the people who are trying to lead you astray. But you have not lost the anointing that he gave you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; the anointing he gave teaches you everything; you are anointed with truth, not with a lie, and as it has taught you, so you must stay in him. Live in Christ, then, my children, so that if he appears, we may have full confidence, and not turn from him in shame at his coming.

January

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THURSDAY

Thursday before Epiphany Ss Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen bishops, doctors of the church Memorial White

Psalm 97: 1-4. R. v. 3 All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God. John 1: 19-25 This is how John appeared as a witness. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ he not only declared, but he declared quite openly, ‘I am not the Christ.’ ‘Well then,’ they asked ‘are you Elijah?’

‘I am not’ he said. ‘Are you the Prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ So they said to him, ‘Who are you? We must take back an answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?’ So John said, ‘I am, as Isaiah prophesied: a voice that cries in the wilderness: Make a straight way for the Lord.’

Now these men had been sent by the Pharisees, and they put this further question to him, ‘Why are you baptising if you are not the Christ, and not Elijah, and not the prophet?’ John replied ‘I baptise with water; but there stands among you – unknown to you – the one who is coming after me; and I am not fit to undo his sandal-strap.’ This happened at Bethany, on the far side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.

Reflection Saint John the Baptiser never hesitated to make the point that his life was not about himself. When asked: ‘who are you?’, he openly declared that he was not the Messiah and directed his hearers to Jesus. In doing this John teaches us how to live a Christ-ened life.

The baptised person accepts that he or she is not the Messiah and delights in the freedom that this brings. Without a personal saviour I bear alone the impossible burden of having to rescue myself, those I love and the world. No person can carry this weight. The one who acknowledges their own need to be saved and turns to Jesus Christ as saviour is able to pray the powerful Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.

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January

3

FRIDAY

Friday before Epiphany White or The Most Holy Name of Jesus (Optional, White)

1 John 2: 29—3: 6 You know that God is righteous – then you must recognise that everyone whose life is righteous has been begotten by him. Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are.

Because the world refused to acknowledge him, therefore it does not acknowledge us. My dear people, we are already the children of God but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is, that when it is revealed we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is. Surely everyone who entertains this hope must purify himself, must try to be as pure as Christ. Anyone who sins at all breaks the law, because to sin is to break the law.

Now you know that he appeared in order to abolish sin, and that in him there is no sin, and anyone who sins has never seen him or known him.

Psalm 97: 1, 3-6. R. v. 3 All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God. John 1: 29-34 The next day, seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I spoke of when I said: A man is coming after me who ranks before me because he existed before me. I did not know him myself, and yet it was to reveal him to Israel that I came baptising with water.’ John also declared, ‘I saw the Spirit coming down on him from heaven like a dove and resting on him. I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptise with water had said to me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is going to baptise with the Holy Spirit.” Yes, I have seen and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God.’

Reflection It’s the turning point of all human history. John the Baptist was one alongside many great prophets who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. But in this moment something new happens: John recognises Jesus and points towards Jesus who he knows to be the Messiah: ‘Look, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’ So much of our life is focused on ourselves, our families and our work as we zealously labour to improve each of these aspects of our lives. But John presents us with a new and more effective method centred not on ourselves, and not on one more person or thing, but with our vision firmly fixed on the person of Jesus Christ who we know to be Emmanuel, ‘God with us.’

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1 John 3: 7-10 My children, do not let anyone lead you astray: to live a holy life is to be holy just as God is holy; to lead a sinful life is to belong to the devil, since the devil was a sinner from the beginning. It was to undo all that the devil has done that the Son of God appeared. No one who has been begotten

by God sins; because God’s seed remains inside him, he cannot sin when he has been begotten by God. In this way we distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil: anybody not living a holy life and not loving his brother is no child of God’s.

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SATURDAY

Saturday before Epiphany White

Psalm 97: 1, 7-9. R. v. 3 All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God. John 1: 35-42 As John stood with two of his disciples, Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God.’ Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, ‘What do you want?’ They answered, ‘Rabbi,’ – which means Teacher – ‘where do you live?’ ‘Come and see’ he replied; so they went and saw where he lived and stayed with him the rest of that day. It was about the tenth hour.

One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Early next morning, Andrew met his brother and said to him ‘We have found the Messiah’ – which means the Christ – and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked hard at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas’ – meaning Rock.

Reflection Jesus asked John and Andrew ‘What do you want?’ They weren’t sure how to reply and stumbled an awkward answer ‘Where do you live? Jesus responded ‘come and see’ so they went and spent the rest of the day with him, and the next day, then the rest of their lives. It’s significant that Jesus began by asking them what they wanted. They might have named any miracle and he could have given it. But their honest inability to stammer their need was enough. All they needed was their dissatisfaction with life as they knew it, their curiosity and their desire for something more. Any positive response to Jesus was enough to permit him to take the next step. So often we are unsure how to pray or what to say. This is no problem for Jesus who is eagerly and patiently waiting for us to express any hint of need to him.

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January

5

SUNDAY

The Epiphany of the Lord Solemnity Psalter Week 2 White

Isaiah 60: 1-6 Arise, shine out Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.

Above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears. The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.

Lift up your eyes and look round: all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons from far away and daughters being tenderly carried.

At this sight you will grow radiant, your heart throbbing and full; since the riches of the sea will flow to you; the wealth of the nations come to you; camels in throngs will cover you, and dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; everyone in Sheba will come, bringing gold and incense and singing the praise of the Lord.

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Psalm 71: 1-2, 7-8, 10-13. R. v. 11 Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Ephesians 3: 2-3, 5-6 You have probably heard how I have been entrusted by God with the grace he meant for you, and that it was by a revelation that I was given the knowledge of the mystery. This mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men in past generations; it means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Christ Jesus, through the gospel.

Matthew 2: 1-12 After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea,’ they told him ‘for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’

Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. ‘Go and find out all about the child’, he said ‘and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.

Reflection In his popular 1927 work Journey of the Magi, T.S. Eliot ponders today’s feast. Just a few months before publishing the poem Eliot had embraced a deeper living of his own Christian faith and was received into the Anglican church. His poem presents much more than the romantic journey of camels carrying kings bearing gifts for the Christ child. Eliot considers the Epiphany event as a birth and a death: just as every death is a birth, so too birth often feels like death as we are weaned from familiar securities and drawn into maturity. We find ourselves ‘no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation’ surrounded by people (even family and friends from whom we now feel alien) who are still striving for and grasping at their false gods. For the Magi, encountering the child Jesus was life-changing just as a real encounter with Jesus Christ is transforming for us too. The Magi entered the house as searchers following a star, but on seeing and recognising Jesus they fell to their knees and worshipped. Now they were no longer simply seekers but pilgrims, people of faith who had been touched by Christ and who were therefore unafraid to travel ‘by a different way.’

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January

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1 John 3: 22—4: 6 Whatever we ask God, we shall receive, because we keep his commandments and live the kind of life that he wants.

His commandments are these: that we believe in the name MONDAY of his Son Jesus Christ and that we love one another as he told us to. Whoever keeps his commandments lives in God Monday after Epiphany and God lives in him. We know that he lives in us by the White Spirit that he has given us. It is not every spirit, my dear people, that you can trust; test them, to see if they come from God, there are many false prophets, now, in the world. You can tell the spirits that come from God by this: every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus the Christ has come in the flesh is from God; but any spirit which will not say this of Jesus is not from God, but is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you were warned about. Well, now he is here, in the world. Children, you have already overcome these false prophets, because you are from God and you have in you one who is greater than anyone in this world; as for them, they are of the world, and so they speak the language of the world and the world listens to them.

But we are children of God, and those who know God listen to us; those who are not of God refuse to listen to us. This is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.

Psalm 2: 7-8, 10-11. R. v. 8 I will give you all the nations for your heritage.

Matthew 4: 12-17, 23-25 Hearing that John had been arrested, Jesus went back to Galilee, and leaving Nazareth he went and settled in Capernaum, a lakeside town on the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali.

In this way the prophecy of Isaiah was to be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali!

Way of the sea on the far side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations! The people that lived in darkness has seen a great light; on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light has dawned.

From that moment Jesus began his preaching with the message, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’

He went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness among the people. His fame spread throughout Syria, and those who were suffering from diseases and painful complaints of one kind or another, the possessed, epileptics, the paralysed, were all brought to him, and he cured them. Large crowds followed him, coming from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judaea and Transjordania.

Reflection Two thousand years after the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus we still experience darkness, but the darkness need not overpower us. Our struggles and uncertainties are not magically removed but they are miraculously transformed. With Jesus, human suffering is the ultimate opportunity for love and intimacy. This is by divine design. When our lives feel ordered and under our control we might still believe in God and even turn up at Mass, but we don’t really need God. The heart of the gospel is that God loves our weakness and neediness since in these struggles he has an entrance into our lives. Again we know from our human experience that some people who seem so perfect and together can struggle with friendship or intimacy. In Jesus Christ God has come very close and we, who so often feel the darkness, have experienced a great light.

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1 John 4: 7-10 My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love. God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.

Psalm 71: 1-4, 7-8. R. cf. v. 11 Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

January

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TUESDAY

Tuesday after Epiphany White or St Raymond of Penyafort, priest (Optional, White)

Mark 6: 34-44 As Jesus stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.

By now it was getting very late, and his disciples came up to him and said, ‘This is a lonely place and it is getting very late, so send them away, and they can go to the farms and villages round about, to buy themselves something to eat.’

He replied, ‘Give them something to eat yourselves.’ They answered, ‘Are we to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?’ ‘How many loaves have you?’ he asked. ‘Go and see.’ And when they had found out they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then he ordered them to get all the people together in groups on the green grass, and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties.

Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all.

They all ate as much as they wanted. They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

Reflection Jesus is eager to work remarkable miracles in your life—not just with an everyday human generosity of getting people to share what they have but by providing a humanly impossible solution to the enormous challenges of life. Jesus takes the little I offer, my little desire, my little faith, my five little loaves and two tiny fish and works a miracle that delivers not the fleeting fantasy of freedom that I’m tempted to grasp at, but a deep satisfaction of my hunger, longing and yearning. Note that Jesus notices the hunger of the people before they realise it themselves. We humans are slow to know what we need, and when we do notice a need we too often impulsively grasp at something that promises to provide a fleeting satisfaction of the need. Take a moment now to ask Jesus to reveal your need to you and ask him to satisfy this hunger in you.

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January

8

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday after Epiphany White

1 John 4: 11-18 My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us. We can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit.

We ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent his Son as saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God. We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves. God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him. Love will come to its perfection in us when we can face the day of Judgement without fear; because even in this world we have become as he is. In love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love: because to fear is to expect punishment, and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love.

Psalm 71: 1-2, 10-13. R. cf. v. 11 Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Mark 6: 45-52 After the five thousand had eaten and were filled, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away. After saying good-bye to them he went off into the hills to pray.

When evening came, the boat was far out on the lake, and he was alone on the land. He could see they were worn out with rowing, for the wind was against them; and about the fourth watch of the night he came towards them, walking on the lake. He was going to pass them by, but when they saw him walking on the lake they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they had all seen him and were terrified. But he at once spoke to them, and said, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely dumbfounded, because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant; their minds were closed.

Reflection ‘We are not living an era of change but a change of era,’ said Pope Francis. The real saints of this new era are those who are not afraid to step out of the boat and with gaze fixed firmly on Jesus Christ walk towards him through turbulent, difficult and even risky circumstances. An intent focus on Jesus elevates our gaze to the One who has the desire and the ability to save us. With each step towards Jesus we discover that we are flooded not with threatening waters but with divine courage. The presence of Jesus is not a ghostly apparition but an inviting reality—the person of God-with-us. It is Jesus Christ who enables us to walk and work with faith and freedom in every complex circumstance of twenty-first century life, in our diverse families and demanding workplaces, alongside faithful friends and fearsome enemies. After all, if our gaze is fixed on Jesus we have nothing to fear.

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1 John 4: 19—5: 4 We are to love, because God loved us first. Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God, and whoever loves the Father that begot him loves the child whom he begets. We can be sure that we love God’s children if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us; this is what loving God is – keeping his commandments; and his commandments are not difficult, because anyone who has been begotten

by God has already overcome the world; this is the victory over the world – our faith.

January

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THURSDAY

Thursday after Epiphany White

Psalm 71: 1-2, 14-15, 17. R. cf. v. 11 Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Luke 4: 14-22 Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him.

He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written: The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.

He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.

Reflection One of the first questions in a well-known old Catechism was ‘Where is God?’ Many of you will respond rightly and without thinking: ‘God is everywhere.’ While we have no problem accepting that God dwells in the heavens, it is more difficult to accept the fact that in Jesus God dwells among us in the present reality in fact and in flesh. It was not easy for the people of Nazareth to accept that the child of Mary and Joseph was now proclaiming himself to be the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. It’s just as challenging for us to be reminded today that if we do not love a sister or brother then we do not love God. But we are also reminded that our ability to love is not a human achievement but a divine gift: we are able to love because God has loved us first.

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