THE BREAKING OF THE YOKE

MONDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Cor 2:1-5; Ps 119:97-102; Lk 4:16-30

The Anointing from God

We are already familiar with the fact that God has invited each of us to eternal communion with him in heaven. We will keep repeating it to spur ourselves on the journey. We have also noted that communion has already begun here when we made a profession of faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind. The sacrament of our communion with God is the Church, into which we have entered by our baptismal profession of faith in Christ. The guarantee and reality of the same communion within each of us and in the Church is the Holy Spirit, who prepares us, individually and collectively as the Church of God, for the fulfilment of the promised communion in heaven. The major work of the Holy Spirit is what he does within each of us; using every means possible, he transforms our minds and hearts into those of Jesus Christ. By doing this, he brings our spirits to the maturity of life and glory of Jesus Christ. By bringing us to know Jesus Christ, he forms our minds in the wisdom and knowledge of the Father. By pouring his love into our hearts, he brings us to love the Father as Jesus loves him. Our Lord alluded to this important work of the Holy Spirit when he told the disciples that the Spirit would lead them into all truth, which they could not receive immediately from him due to their unreadiness.

Our unreadiness to receive the revelation of God’s knowledge and love is always because of the contrary orientation or disorientation caused by sin within us. As we noted previously, though the original orientation remains within us as a foundation of our communion with God, the sinful disorientation and its structure impede its proper functioning. This sinful structure and its disorientation prevent the entrance of Jesus Christ into us. Because this evil structure and orientation have a firm grip on our souls, minds, and wills, Christ threads with utmost care into each of us. What transpired between our Lord and his village people illustrates this divine care. The Lord expressed his divine mission as follows. “The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.” The good news he graciously announced to them did not prevent their anger and outburst, which made them desire to take his life. “And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.” They were first attracted by the divine words, as all of us are, and caused to rebel by the disorientation within them. “They said, ‘This is Joseph’s son, surely?’ But he replied, ‘No doubt you will quote me the saying, “Physician, heal yourself,” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.’” So, the Lord pointed to the sinful structure and orientation that will oppose the entrance of the grace of salvation into them.

Exposed by the Lord, the evil within them raged against the Lord and filled them with desire to murder the Son of Man. “When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.” This illustrates the strong hold sin and its structure have on us. Thus, the Holy Spirit works most gently within us to free us from the yoke of sin and evil. Saint Paul, working with the Holy Spirit, expresses the same gentleness in his work. “During my stay with you, the only knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus Christ, and only about him as the crucified Christ. Far from relying on any power of my own, I came among you in great ‘fear and trembling’ and in my speeches and the sermons that I gave, there were none of the arguments that belong to philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the Spirit.” Paul wants us to understand here that the more we are transformed into Jesus Christ, the more we rely on the Holy Spirit to accomplish the spiritual work of bringing souls to faith in Jesus Christ. It is never human knowledge, argument, logic, or erudition that converts souls, but the grace of the Holy Spirit that gives the grace of Jesus Christ to our communications. This happens when we love the word of God and preach it more out of love. “Lord, how I love your law! It is ever in my mind.”

Let us pray: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.