Sunday, January 26, 2025

This year our Gospels during Ordinary Time come from Luke and we start out with Jesus coming to His hometown, shortly after being baptized in the Jordan River.  He enters the synagogue and presents what could be called His mission statement, what His ministry would be about.  As opposed to being a kingly power, as the Jews expected, Jesus made it clear He was here to help those in need.  He would “bring glad tidings to the poor …liberty to captives…recovery of sight to the blind…free the oppressed….and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”  In short, Jesus came to help us and free us.
 
All of us need to be freed from the burden of sin and our failings.  We need to be freed from our spiritual blindness.  Jesus is there for us: we simply need to turn to Him.  In one sense, that is what the jubilee year, opened by Pope Francis in December, is about.  It is based on a longstanding Jewish custom that every 50 years was a jubilee year in which debts were forgiven and land that had been lost was transferred back to its original owner.  This prevented the rich from getting richer at the expense of those who were vulnerable. 
 
The jubilee year is a good opportunity to grow closer to the Lord, especially by letting go of anger or resentments from the past.  We all make mistakes; we all need to be forgiven.  As the Lord is ready to forgive us, we also must forgive others.  I invite us to make this jubilee year a special time of growing in our ability to be forgiving, loving followers of Christ.
 
My prayer is that, when the jubilee year is over, we will all be
better at letting go of grievances and forgiving others.  After all, God forgives us!  God bless.
 
Church sign of the week: The comeback is always stronger than the setback.