Today, on the first day of the new Church year, we hear Saint Luke recounting how Jesus Christ began His public ministry. He came to Nazareth and went into the synagogue where He was given the book of the prophet Isaiah to read. Having read Isaiah’s words about preaching good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, setting at liberty those who are oppressed, and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord, Christ did a dramatic thing. He announced that “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
This dramatic announcement stands at the beginning of Jesus Christ’s public ministry and tells us what He was all about. Saint Cyril of Alexandria says that this event “signifies the joyful tidings of His own advent, that the time of the Lord – yes, the Son – had arrived.” This event marked the beginning of a process that would lead to Christ’s death and ultimately to His victory over death in the Resurrection.
But Jesus’ words are also addressed to each one of us personally and show us exactly what sort of good news it is that He brings us. We are all poor, if not materially then certainly spiritually. We are all held captive by our own egoism and sin. We are all blind to a lesser or greater degree, and not able to perceive the Divine Light. Christ comes to us to free us from all that hinders us from becoming what we were truly created to be.
We have heard all these things before, and we may have wasted many chances that were given to us. But the Church gives us this reading on the first day of the new Church year to remind us once more of the newness of the offer of salvation that is given to us in Christ. Today is the day of salvation. Let us hear once more the offer of Christ as if for the first time.