Monday, 22th Week in Ordinary Time
Daily Readings: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11 & Luke 4: 14 – 22a
Reflection Date: August 30, 2021
Many scholars have called Luke 4: 16 – 30 a programmatic and paradigmatic text. It is, in fact, the key to the whole Gospel of Luke. It is a kind of overture to the entire Gospel and is called "a Gospel within the Gospel."
The self-manifestation of Jesus projected in the Gospel of Mark in the first three days of this week now takes on a new meaning in the Gospel of Luke. In the Gospel of Mark, the disciples failed to recognize His power and His identity as the Messiah. But in the Gospel of Luke, even ordinary people marvel at His authority and glorify God.
The manifesto of Jesus declared by Him in the Synagogue at Nazareth reveals the messianic acts mentioned by Isaiah, who had prophesied around 700 years before the birth of Jesus. Jesus' exposition on this passage from Isaiah 61: 1 – 2 won consideration from His audience.
But the subsequent events in the Gospel prove that this consideration did not take them further to accept Jesus as the Messiah. For they looked at Jesus as the son of a carpenter and coming from a rural setting.
Let us accept Jesus as the Messiah in our lives and give Him due respect in all that we do.
Joseph Cardozo SJ | Contributor
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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