It is customary for us in our times to think of the time before Jesus as the time of expectation. The people of Israel were the children of the promise awaiting the coming of the Messianic age when all would be fulfilled. All the hopes and dreams of the Messianic era would be brought to fruition by the coming of the Messiah. The readings for today shed a great deal of light on this theme.In the first reading Ezra the priest is leading the people of Israel in prayer after returning from the Babylonian captivity. The expectations of the people were high after such a calamity, and this day of prayer was a day of thanksgiving and celebration - today is holy to the Lord. Therefore, the people should rejoice and feast, "for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength." God has surely worked wonders for the people, as they are now free.
However, in the Gospel reading for today we see an even greater cause for rejoicing. The Messianic age has come. Jesus comes to preach in the synagogue of his home town to announce that the prophecies of Isaiah regarding the Messiah were fulfilled today in him. An even greater liberation than the one we saw in the first reading is about to happen: the captives will be set free, the blind will see, oppression will end, and the poor will receive glad tidings. The whole world will have their sins washed clean, and the captivity from the evil one will come to an end in the ministry of Jesus.
This ministry continues in the mission of the Church. Paul reminds the early Christian community that in baptism we are brought into the ministry of Jesus and we all perform specific functions within the body of Christ. Just as a body has many parts that perform separate functions to make the entire body work well, so the Church has many ministries that have specific functions to make the body of Christ work well. What unites all the ministries is the mission of Jesus that is our mission: we are sent to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom from oppression, and to bring good news to the poor.
The mission of the Church - the mission of Jesus - is to every person and to the whole person. Our mission is both material - providing for the poor and the needs of others - and to the spirit - to liberate people from sin. As Pope John Paul II noted in his first encyclical Redemptor Hominis, "In Christ and through Christ God has revealed himself fully to mankind and has definitively drawn close to it; at the same time, in Christ and through Christ man has acquired full awareness of his dignity, of the heights to which he is raised, of the surpassing worth of his own humanity, and of the meaning of his existence. All of us who are Christ's followers must therefore meet and unite around him. This unity in the various fields of the life, tradition, structures, and discipline of the individual Christian Churches and ecclesial communities cannotbe brought about without effective work aimed at getting to know each other and removing the obstacles blocking the way to perfect unity. However, we can and must immediately reach and display to the world our unity in proclaiming the mystery of Christ, in revealing the divine dimension and also the human dimension of the Redemption, and in struggling with unwearying perseverance for the dignity of each human being has reached and continually reach in Christ, namely the dignity of both the grace of divine adoption and the inner truth of humanity, a truth which - if in the common awareness of the modern world it has been given such fundamental importance - for us is still clearer in the light of the reality that is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the stable principle and fixed centre of the mission that God himself has entrusted to man. We must all share in this mission and concentrate all our forces on it, since it is more necessary than ever and, in spite of the opposition, more awaited than ever" (#11).
May we go forth inspired by the prayer of the liturgy: "Almighty Father, the love you offer always exceeds the furthest expression of our human longing, for you are greater than the human heart. Direct each thought, each effort of our life, so that the limits of our faults and weaknesses may not obscure the vision of your glory or keep us from the peace you have promised. We ask this through Christ our Lord."
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