A year acceptable to the Lord

 

We’re only in the first week of the new year, a time when many people around the world welcome the time to start over, to dust off resolutions and try to do better.  But as the events in Washington DC today unfolded, I couldn’t help worrying about the country and our lack of love for, or even civility towards our fellow human beings.  I have no doubt that at least some of the hooligans profess to be Christians, and that’s more the pity!  They seem to have forgotten Jesus’ message to the Nazoreans at the beginning of His mission.  

As Jesus formally began His mission on earth, He started with His hometown of Nazareth.  There, in the synagogue on a Sabbath, He read to the people from the passage in Isaiah (Isaiah 61), which proclaims the coming messianic age.  “In a voice filled with the fire of the Spirit, He announced to them Isaiah's prophecy of a time of good news to the poor, liberty for captives, recovery of sight to the blind and freedom for the oppressed, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”  Then, handing the scroll to an attendant, He proclaimed to all present, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:14-22).  These words are the core of Jesus' message to both the people of His day and of our times!  Talk about a reason to hope!

I resolve to proclaim my own year acceptable to the Lord.  I can start now and keep renewing that promise every day in prayer and actions.  In proclaiming my year acceptable to the Lord, I can live out these words in my own way.  I can offer my help to the poor, to those people who feel forgotten.  I can try to free myself from the captivity of consumerism and always wanting more.  I can free myself from the captivity of always being plugged in and multitasking.  I can open my eyes and really see the people I’m talking to, the people I’m spending time with.  I can offer prayers and love to those oppressed by fear and tribulations.

And in my own year acceptable to the Lord, I need to listen and live according to the admonition of John in his First Letter (1 John 4:19-5:4).  We must love God and our neighbor, our brother.  More than that, we need to see God in all of our brothers and neighbors.  In my year acceptable to the Lord, I will pray for the compassion and strength to do that every day.  The Gospel tells us that Jesus returned in the power of the Holy Spirit.  I pray that I open my heart and mind to the power of the Holy Spirit in the world not only this year, but for the rest of my life.

As the uplifting Christmas tune says, “Let it begin with me!”