Holy Thursday

Luke 4:16-21

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, 
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and 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,
 and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them, 
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Reflection

Today is the historical day of the Chrism Mass when priests renew their vows.  I have chosen to write about the readings from the Chrism Mass, specifically about the first reading.  Jesus reads the reading from Isaiah and pronounces it fulfilled in him having proclaimed the Word and the people having heard the word.  In the past I focused on the messenger, Jesus spoke so it was fulfilled.  In the past few months, God has put the message on my heart, the good news.

 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly,
to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
To announce a year of favor from the LORD
and a day of vindication by our God,
to comfort all who mourn;
To place on those who mourn in Zion
a diadem instead of ashes,
To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning,
a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit.”

The lowly, the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners, those who mourn.  It is to these that Jesus was sent.  In our baptism the following words were spoken to us, our parents and Godparents, “just as Jesus was anointed priest, prophet, and king, so may you live always as a member of his body sharing everlasting life.”

In virtue of our baptism, each of us is united with Christ as priest, prophet and king.  I would like to focus on the first two.  We are called to be priests.  One of our jobs is to pray, to intercede for others.  We often pray for our loved ones, for the sick and for the hurting.  But how often do we pray for our enemies, for the rich, or for the powerful?  What do we pray?  In the liturgy of the hours there are beautiful prayers such as that legislators and governments work for the common good and that wealthier nations help nations that are in need.  It is not communist or socialist that we share in one another’s burdens, it is Christian.  We need to remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar.  In my lifetime, I have never witnessed the love of money to the degree that I do today.  The love of money truly is dehumanizing.  The desire to make another dollar at the expense of the future of the world is sinful.  The choice to make another buck instead of addressing climate change is a choice that harms billions of people for who knows how long.  The rich and powerful need our prayers, not for more prosperity, but perhaps conversion, for their humanity lest they become like the rich man in the story.

How about our enemies?  I know that it is far easier to cry out to God for vengeance or justice than it is to pray “forgive them for they know not what they do.”  But the latter needs to be our prayer.  We can and should pray for conversion, not only for those who hurt us, but also for ourselves.  None of us have arrived at the heavenly Jerusalem.  The journey is more pleasant when we travel together.

The other role is that of prophet.  A prophet speaks for God.  There is one message from God that I believe we can speak without hesitation.  God loves people.  We should spread that message to the best of our ability.  Primarily that means we must be people of hope and of joy.  It is possible to be joyful and hopeful even in bad times.  It is hard to receive the message that God loves you from a person filled with bitterness.  How many times have you heard that the person who just committed a violent or hateful act was filled with love?  This world needs to know that it is loved.  Each person needs to know that they are loved.  We can only genuinely spread that word if we believe it. Our eyes need to be on the prize.  The prize is not of this world.  I believe that if we are overly attached to the things of this world it undermines the message of Jesus. For the sake of what was ahead, Jesus despised the shame of the cross.  Remember that we too are royalty.  If the world does not recognize us, it is because it did not recognize the Son.  If we truly recognize the Son, then we too, should recognize our own royalty.  If we recognize our destiny, we too should be able to despise the shame of the cross.  We, too, can pray for our enemies, for the rich, for the powerful.  We, too, can spread the message of love.  We can endure our cross for the advancement of God’s kingdom.

Action

How can we be priest, prophet in king in today’s world? Let’s think about what we can do to uphold or baptismal promises.

Rev. Fr. Louie Amezaga

Associate Pastor at Holy Family American National Catholic Church