Monday of the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Luke 4:16–30

Meditatio

“Today this scripture passage is fulfilled.…”

    Luke tells us the people’s response as Jesus developed his homily: They “were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” Luke isn’t just stating the obvious. In this passage Jesus is claiming his messianic role. Luke’s words refer to Psalm 45, a messianic psalm known as the “royal wedding song.” The psalmist says to “the king” that “fair speech has graced your lips.” That brings to mind Luke 6:45 (“from the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks”) and even the prologue of John, “from his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace” (Jn 1:16), which leads to John’s own conclusion (and a very apt summing up of today’s Gospel): “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him” (Jn 1:18).

    Saint Thérèse of Lisieux wrote that she desired to learn Greek so that she could read the New Testament without the intermediary of translation: to receive the word right from the mouth of God. When I read this passage from Luke, I want to learn Hebrew, so I can read the same words that Jesus read that Sabbath in Nazareth. He looked up from the text that day and announced that those words, already so ancient and revered in his day, were fulfilled.

    Actually, my desire is superficial compared to what the Lord offers in today’s Gospel passage. He isn’t merely suggesting that I find communion with him by learning to read the same language he read: he offers me profound communion with him in the fulfillment of the prophecy! He offers to let those Scriptures be fulfilled today, as he lives in me to heal the brokenhearted, “to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind … to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” And I don’t have to learn Hebrew for that!

Oratio

    Lord, that crowd in the Nazareth synagogue was amazed by the fullness of grace and truth that came from your lips as you made God known to them in the Scriptures and in yourself. But it is not enough that the Scriptures were fulfilled in your human life: you want them to be continuously fulfilled in your Mystical Body. You want me to share in this grace today. Open my mind and heart to the opportunities today to bring sight to the blind (and receive sight myself), freedom to captives (and to accept the challenges of interior freedom myself), and healing to the brokenhearted (as I also allow my heart to be touched and made new).

Contemplatio

    Today the Scriptures are fulfilled.…

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 18–34: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)