A dazzling promise

One of Jesus’ toughest audiences was the people from His hometown who knew Him the best.  He revisited His boyhood synagogue and read from Scripture: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has anointed me; sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind”, and other astonishing news.

At first, they were impressed and then instantly doubtful; “Is this not Joseph’s son?” they muttered to each other.  “Surely this kid we know so well, the son of our town carpenter can’t really have a message for us from God!” (Luke 4:16-30)

Many of us may pity those people who were in the synagogue that day for being so obtuse, but then we can look at our own lives.  How often are we the ones in the audience, muttering our own doubts?  We’re told that God's spirit is present in us and those around us.  But we know that can’t be true and instead turn our full attention to those nagging voices muttering inside us, reminding us of our flaws, our imperfections.

Our greatest temptation in life might be to doubt that God can be found in our midst and that God is right here, standing in the middle of our lives.  We, who are so acutely aware of our own flaws, might doubt our value and that of those around us.  We feel undeserving of God’s love, and so we ignore all of the places and people in our lives where God’s love is being proclaimed to us.

As I read about Jesus’ hometown experience, I have to ask myself, “In how many places, with how many people and before how many challenges in my life do I close my eyes to the presence of God and say, “This is just Joseph’s son?”  “Surely God can’t be found here in MY weakness and fears!”  But that’s exactly where God is found.  It’s only when we truly believe that God loves us just as we are, as imperfectly as we have become because of a thousand choices we’ve made, that we can recognize His presence in ourselves and others.  It’s in the heart of our everyday lives that we find the spirit of the Lord in our own imperfect marriages, in aging parents, in our troubled children or demanding co-workers.

Jesus invites us to look around and stop seeing ourselves and others through our blinding fears.  If we allow our hearts to be transformed we’ll see the spirit of the Lord upon each person in our lives.  It is then that we’ll find the intimacy with Jesus we long for so deeply and we will have been healed, once again, of our blindness.

St. Paul’s message to the early Christians in Thessalonica underscore Jesus’ message:  Do not say He has died.  Rather He has fallen asleep.  Resurrection is a promise (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).  We trust Jesus’ words that we will “meet the Lord in the air” and never be apart.

Without the Spirit, the community descends into a bilious state.  Schools are asking children to wear masks to keep them safe.  Some parents have erupted about infringements on their liberty.  Governments (and Catholic bishops—including the Pope—are advocating that everyone over 12 should get vaccinated against the virus.  Many people, even faced with the daily news of increased deaths and extreme suffering, are calling it a conspiracy to control the masses.  Where are the glad tidings?  What happened to the common good?

With the Spirit, the oppressed go free.  Here is new life.  It’s a dazzling promise.