REFLECTIONS TODAY
The Synoptic Gospels tell of Jesus preaching in the synagogue of his native Nazareth where people first speak highly of him but later reject him for hurting their pride as God’s chosen by mentioning that the prophets ministered to the pagans ahead of Israel.
John, in turn, speaks of rejection of the Word-made-flesh, “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him” (1:11). Unlike Mark and Matthew who situate Jesus’ homecoming in the later part of his ministry, Luke transposes it at the beginning.
In so doing, he makes Jesus’ sermon in the synagogue programmatic of his entire ministry. Jesus’ teaching is the fulfillment not only of Isaiah’s prophecy but of the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures. He comes as the fulfillment of the story and hopes of God’s people. In the Jubilee Year 2025, we hear once more Jesus’ mission “to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (v 19). This is none other than announcing the year of the Jubilee—a time of great joy, of reconciliation, of freedom.
Pope John Paul II explains, “The Prophet [Isaiah] was speaking of the Messiah. ‘Today,’ Jesus added, ‘this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’ (Lk 4:21), thus indicating that he himself was the Messiah foretold by the Prophet, and that the long-expected ‘time’ was beginning in him.
The day of salvation had come, the ‘fullness of time’… The Jubilee, a ‘year of the Lord’s favor,’ characterizes all the activity of Jesus; it is not merely the recurrence of an anniversary in time” (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 11). How do you keep the spirit of the Jubilee this year? Does Jesus still speak to us “today”?
First Reading • 1 John 5:5-13
Beloved: Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and Blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and Blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth.
So there are three who testify, the Spirit, the water, and the Blood, and the who are of one accord. If we accept human testimony, the testimony of God is surely greater. Now the testimony of God is this, that he has testified on behalf of his Son.
Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God.
Gospel • Luke 5:12-16
It happened that there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do will it. Be made clean.”
And the leprosy left him immediately. Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but, “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”
The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.