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Greetings, Everyone!
When I think of Isaiah's scroll, I wonder how many Christians today would find its message digestible. Jeremiah devoured God's words, and they became his happiness, the joy of his heart (Jer 15:16); however, Jeremiah lamented that the people, refusing to listen to him, instead followed the promises of false prophets who offered "Lying visions, foolish divination, dreams of their own imagination" (Jer 14:14). For his part, with lips purified by the Seraphim's coal, Isaiah also preached the Holy One's words to those who would not hear. Both prophets experienced the torment of seeing from God's vantage point, of speaking Truth to Power, and then paying the price for their fidelity.
Today's Gospel presents Jesus' mission statement. Based on Is 61:1-2, the text was most likely written by one of Isaiah's disciples, but it mirrors the great prophet's teachings and rhetorical style. The portion of the scroll that Jesus selected is unequivocally a call to practice love and mercy, especially to the most vulnerable of God's children. For Jews, this mandate would refer specifically to the widow, the orphan, and the alien:
"God defends the cause of orphans and widows, and loves the foreigners residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt."
Dt. 10:18-19
As Christians, we are called to savor these words, chew on them slowly, and absorb what they mean for today's world.
Bon Appétit!
Elizabeth
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SCRIPTURE REFLECTION
Link to Sunday Readings
He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and, on the Sabbath, went according to his custom
into the synagogue. When he stood up to read, he was
handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the
scroll, he found the passage where it was written:
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.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
Then he said to them,
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Luke 4:14-21
There is nothing in Luke's Gospel to suggest that Jesus asked for a particular scroll when he got up to read, but he was clearly familiar with the writings of Isaiah and those of the prophet's disciples; if this were not the case, he would not have been able to locate the precise verses that summed up his mission (Is 61:1-2). What was "fulfilled" in the synagogue was Jesus' acceptance of his mission to the afflicted, along with his rejection of earthly ambitions. It is no coincidence that Luke positions this passage right after Jesus' baptism and the temptations in the desert. At the beginning of the same chapter, Jesus refused to bow to the powers of this world or to let himself be driven by ego desires. Rather, he consistently asserted his allegiance to God, refusing to use his spiritual gifts for personal gain. His forty days in the desert, then, shaped his understanding of what it meant to be God's Beloved Son. His mission would not be to the rich and powerful but to the poor, the broken-hearted, and those on the margins...
In just two verses, Jesus claimed his divine anointing and summed up whom he was called to serve. While Is 61 refers specifically to the rebuilding of Zion, Jesus' stated mission was to the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, and the oppressed-- in other words, to all those who yearned to find glad tidings somewhere in the wreckage of their lives. Now, we could take these categories literally, or we might also expand them to give them wider applications. "The poor" refers to those lacking material necessities such as food, clothing, and housing, but those who lack opportunities or face limiting circumstances are also poor; so, too, those who have sacrificed dreams or who no longer have the capacity to hope or to imagine a better world, a happier future. They are the lost, the forsaken, the lonely, the grieving, and those desperately in need of support to navigate life's challenges.
Similarly, "captives" not only refers to those in prison but to anyone who lacks the freedom to make life-giving choices, perhaps because they are trapped in an unhealthy relationship, or because they lack basic rights, or because others' expectations confine them. People can be held captive by systems as well as by other individuals; they can be forced into soul-destroying labor because that is the only means of survival for them and their families. Then, of course, there are those who are trafficked into the sex trade, the child pornography trade, the West African chocolate harvesting industry, or into slave fishing ships in the South China Sea...
As for the "blind," well, Jesus certainly healed a number of people who were physically blind, but he also challenged assumptions, called out hypocrisy, and taught his disciples to see with eyes of faith and speak Truth. In this way, as in the case of the man born blind (Jn 9), those who follow him move from "unseeing" to "seeing," from lack of faith to belief. As the Light of the World (Jn 8:12), Jesus illumines the darkness and offers "the light of life."
And as for the oppressed, we don't have to look very far. Wherever people are deprived of human rights, stripped of property or their means of livelihood, separated from their families, disrespected, treated cruelly, mocked, scapegoated, punished for truth-speaking, and forced into impossible situations, then we have oppression. One cannot be oppressed, however, unless there is an "oppressor," whether this be a national leader, the CEO of a company, or even the head of a household. Whenever one wields power over others without any care for their well-being, then oppression is spawned. Left unchecked, it grows and festers, crushing its victims in body, mind, and spirit.
There is so much more I could write, but time and space are running short. Suffice it to say that Christianity has always had a "preferential option for the poor." This is the principle underlying Catholic social teaching, as well as the teachings of other Christian denominations; based on Jesus' own sense of mission, it is what God requires of each of us.
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