Returning home after more than eleven years ‘on mission’ overseas has been a challenging and confronting experience. So much has changed. I’ve changed. Society has changed. The Church has changed. So much is unfamiliar to me and I’m ‘unknown’. I feel like a foreigner in the country I call home.  

Luke portrays something similar in the gospel. After being away, Jesus has returned home for a visit. Some people will remember him growing up in Nazareth. Others will know his parents. Others may have benefitted from his carpentry skills. Others may be curious or uncertain about why he’s returned. Others may treat him with suspicion if he’s unknown to them.

He’s not some ‘local lad’ who’s come home after travelling or working away. He has a reputation and it’s gone ahead of him. He’s somewhat of a ‘celebrity’. Will he live up to his reputation? Will he be as wise as they’ve heard? Will he say or do something special in his home town? Will he challenge them to live differently and change their way of life?

As expected, Jesus goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath, where he would have spent time as a boy and young man. He’s handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he reads: “The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me to bring 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.”

Jesus then says something that disturbs and challenges those who are gathered: “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.” Surely he’s not suggesting that he is the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy? The people were expecting the Messiah sometime in the future. They can’t believe that the time is now. The Messiah is there in their midst! Naturally, they can’t comprehend what’s just unfolded in their presence. In time, they will want him to prove his prophetic words through special deeds and miraculous signs.

“Today” has really disturbed them. Jesus says nothing about the future. Rather, he claims that he has the power to transform the present. Good times are not some future dream. They are here now, and the Kingdom of God is among them. Today is what counts. Today grace abounds. Today the kingdom is realised. Today God is revealed.

“Today” is the very reason that this gospel challenged the people of Jesus’ home town, and it challenges us to be open to the life of Christ here and now, and to live our lives to the full. The fulfilment of God’s promise today is important for us to understand and embrace, so that we’ll not miss the grace of God’s saving action in the simple, ordinary and everyday experiences and encounters of our lives.

David Hore CSsR

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