Every year we have the same readings for this beautiful celebration that blesses, for us, the holy oils to be used at the Easter Vigil and the coming year. The gospel speaks of Jesus declaring, in his person and ministry, an ongoing year of Jubilee: "... to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour... today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Lk 4: 18 and 21) Thus, every time we proclaim the gospel at Mass the living Word opens us up to the blessings which Jesus proclaimed on that day. It is his Word, not a dead letter, rather an active presence in the liturgy: "Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper that any two edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account." Let us, therefore, not be indifferent to the blessings of the gospel and carried away by intellectual and academic obfuscation. We have the Church Fathers, the Papal Magisterium and other tools from the Church to assist us in interpreting the Word. Let us not, like the hearers of that sermon by Jesus on that day, be scandalized by the generosity and superfluity of God's grace and mercy which surpasses anything that we could imagine: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Cor 2: 9)
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