Dear Parishioner,  

         In this third week of the Church’s Ordinary Time the Gospel this Sunday shows us Jesus in the earliest days of his ministry. He enters the synagogue in Nazareth “where he had been brought up.” As is the practice at the Synagogue Sabbath Service, members of the congregation are invited to read from the scripture scrolls. In this case the text is from the prophet Isaiah. It is a very short passage, as follows:

    “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

    “The year of the Lord’s favour” recalls the Jubilee Year ordained in the Book of Leviticus. Every fifty years the people of Israel were supposed to rest, restore property that had been wrongly taken and forgive debts. The forgiving of debts every fifty years would prevent inter-generational poverty. We can see how Jesus wants to make all things new, to remove the burdens which afflict us. He wants us to be free of the oppression caused by physical illness, bad mental health, imprisonment and restrictions of one sort or another, poverty, injustice, inability to forgive, and guilt. Jesus is ushering in a permanent time of “Favour”. We can live a new way, where we move from a life spoiled by blame, guilt and oppression (whether we are giving or receiving it!) to a life lived consciously in the loving presence of God.

      One of the initiatives in this Jubilee Year 2025 is the campaign to get the richer nations to forgive some of the crushing debt burdens that many poorer nations have. This might pave the way for greater stability and peace.  Pope Francis invites us to “Dare to Hope”. This hope is founded in our baptism and the grace we received then, together with grace we continue to receive at the sacraments. The sacrament of penance frees us from sin and strengthens us in the areas of our lives where we have confessed weakness. The other sacraments empower us for all the situations in our differing lives. This grace does not exempt us from suffering but instead it does something so much more – it enables us to love others as we have been loved by Christ. Can we allow Jesus to set us free to live like that?

      Yours in Christ,

Fr Timothy OSB