Gospel for today and reflection (2024)

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1^st Reading (1Cor 2:1-5): When I came to you, brothers and sisters, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Versicle before the Gospel (Cf. Lk 4:18): Alleluia. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor. Alleluia.

Today, “this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4:21). With these words, Jesus comments at the synagogue of Nazareth a text from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me” (Lk 4:18). These words have a meaning that goes beyond the specific historical moment when they were said. The Holy Spirit fully dwells in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit sends him to believers.

But, in addition, the words of the Gospel are the words of both eternal and current life. They are eternal because The Eternal One has said them, and they are current because God makes them to be permanently fulfilled. When we listen to the Word of God, we have to receive it not as a human speech, but as the Word that has the power of transforming us. God does not speak to our ear but to our heart. Whatever He says is profoundly full of meaning and love. The Word of God is an inexhaustible source of life: «Who, O Lord, could possibly penetrate with his mind even one of your utterances? Just as in the case of thirsty men who drink from a fountain, we leave behind more than that we can take a hold of» (St. Ephraem). His words come out of the heart of God. And, from this heart, from the Trinity's bosom, Jesus came —the Father's Word— to mankind.

This is why when, every day, we listen to the Gospel, we must be able to say, along with the Virgin Mary: “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38); to which God will reply: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." (However, for the Word to be effective in our lives, we must get rid of all our prejudices. Jesus' contemporaries did not understand it, because they were looking at him with human eyes only: "Is this not the son of Joseph?" (Lk 4:22). They could see Jesus Christ's humanity, but they could not appreciate his divinity. Whenever we listen to the Word of God, beyond its literary style, the beauty of its expressions or the singularity of the situation, we must remember it is God who is speaking to us.

• “For that was the acceptable year in which Christ was crucified in our behalf, because we then were made acceptable unto God the Father, as the fruit borne by Him.” (Saint Cyril of Alexandria)

• “The good news is the precious pearl of which we read in the Gospel. It is not a thing but a mission. This is evident to anyone who has experienced the ‘delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing’” (Francis)

• “(...) The economy of salvation is at work within the framework of time, but since its fulfillment in the Passover of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the culmination of history is anticipated ‘as a foretaste,’ and the kingdom of God enters into our time.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1168)

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