Jesus is the one whom God has anointed with the Holy Spirit and sent to bring glad tidings to the poor.  And he wants us to be like him, bringing the Good News to the poor by the power of the Spirit.

We Christians try to become like Jesus Christ.  We seek to conform to him, to the way he is, to how he thinks, feels and acts.   All this requires, however, that we really know him.

And in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us who he is.  He does so as he takes part in the service at the synagogue in Nazareth.  There are details in the account about what he does and says.

Jesus stands up to read.  And right away he receives a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.  He unrolls it and, finding a passage, he reads it.  After the reading, he rolls up the scroll and hands it back to the attendant.  He sits down.  He, then, explains the reading, saying to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

These details are a way to show the importance of what Jesus does and says .  They also invite us to look intently at him and to listen to him attentively.  Hopefully, by not missing any detail, we get to know him accurately and understand with certainty his anointing and his mission.

Jesus, needless to say, reveals himself as the preacher of the Good News to the poor.  And it is surely the Holy Spirit that leads him to those who live on the outskirts, to opt for them.

Jesus tells us, moreover, that he is the today of those in need.  In other words, he fulfills here and now all their hopes and wishes and dreams.  He is their Savior.  And his wondrous deeds show also that he thinks of salvation not as something spiritual only.  Though, undoubtedly, they are its signs.  And so, he saves them in every way, answering both their bodily and spiritual needs.

Christians, particularly the Vincentians, are truly like Jesus and follow him when they help the poor in every way.

To be like Jesus is “to model our thoughts, works, and intentions on his” (SV.EN XII: 68).  And what does it mean to be like Jesus and share in Vincentian charism that also comes from the one Spirit?   It means “to preach the Gospel by words and by works” (SV.EN XII: 78), which St. Vincent spells out, of course, in great detail.  We should, therefore, read or hear it again and again.  But, more importantly, it must come to fulfillment today in our reading or hearing.

Lord Jesus, make us like you, truly committed to the poor, as the Eucharist asks of us (CCC 1397).

27 January 2019
3rd Sunday in O.T. (C)
Neh 8, 2-4a. 5-6. 8-10; 1 Cor 12, 12-30; Lk 1, 1-7; 4, 14-21