Luke's Gospel recounts the beginning of Jesus' public ministry as He returns "in the power of the Holy Spirit" to Nazareth and stands up in the synagogue to read from the prophet Isaiah. There Isaiah declares that the Spirit of the Lord has commissioned him to announce good news to the poor, news of release from captivity, recovery of sight for the blind, liberty to the oppressed—all in all, a year "of the Lord's favor." The Old Testament called this celebration the Year of Jubilee. Jesus applied that passage to himself as a new beginning for Israel. He is the one who launches the Jubilee Year for all who will hear Him.
Up Next in Opening the Word
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4th Sunday of Easter - May 3, 2020
We like the idea of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, but we seldom like the idea of being sheep—people who blindly follow anyone or anything. However, that’s not what sheep and shepherds are like in real life.
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2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time—January 1...
"Come and see." This is the method of God. He doesn't just want to give us answers, but to live life with us. When the disciples follow Christ, the Gospel says that they "stayed with him." When we stay with God, we can begin to hear and see clearly, and begin to find him in the quiet of our hearts.
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4th Sunday in Ordinary Time—January 2...
As we enter the fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we encounter the beautiful but challenging teachings of the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes present us with a paradox. Jesus says that the people who are suffering by the world's standards are actually blessed. In fact, the word blessed in Greek means so...
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