Christ went to the Synagogue and read from Isaiah and said, “Today this is fulfilled in your hearing.” Christ speaks to us today, not just in the past. Every year on the Ecclesiastical New Year, we are reminded that Christ came to heal us, to cure us, and to save us. Let’s make this the “acceptable year of the Lord.”
In this morning’s gospel we just heard our Lord read from the prophecy of Isaiah. I’m just going to read a brief section of it again to put us in the proper mindset. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”. This, from the prophet Isaiah, Christ read at the synagogue, and then he said “Today this is fulfilled in your hearing,” reminding the people that the Savior that was promised from God so many centuries ago is in fact our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. “Today,” he says, “this is fulfilled in your hearing” but it’s easy for us in the year 2024 to hear this message as something from the past.
We listen to the gospel Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, and we always imagine it as if it is in the past. But it’s for us today. It was for us last year. It is for us today. And if we live to see another year, it will be for us again next year. And the proof that it is for us is in the words from the prophet, to preach the gospel to the poor. We are the poor. Not necessarily financially poor, but spiritually poor. Our society is becoming overwhelmed with depression, and people feeling alone, without any assistance. And yet, today this has been fulfilled. Today, Christ is reminding us, that the good news of the gospel is for the poor, to heal the broken-hearted. We all need healing in our hearts. Whether it is some family disturbance, whether it is some love that we have lost, our hearts need healing. Sometimes even when we don’t realize it, our hearts need healing. Today Christ has come to heal our hearts, to proclaim liberty to the captives.
Freedom is the banner of our nation, but we do not live in freedom because we enslave ourselves to sin. We enslave ourselves to our passions, to our struggles. Today, Christ has come to free us from our sin. Recovery of sight to the blind. How many times do we not see the love of God right in front of us? How many times do we witness God’s grace, and we are blind to his love? Today, God has come to open our eyes to see his grace and to see his glory. Liberty to those who are oppressed. The devil, my brothers and sisters, has been holding his thumb down on humanity ever since Adam and Eve ate from the tree.
But God has come to save us from that, God has come to remove the thumb of the devil from upon us, to grant us the freedom. And yet, as St. Paul reminds us so beautifully, we continue to re-enslave ourselves to sin even though God has come to release us from captivity, to remove the oppression of the devil. And St. Paul reminded us today that our Lord wants everyone to come into his kingdom. And then finally, our Lord says, “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” This, my brothers and sisters, is the time for us to give to God everything in our lives. This is not the year of the chicken, this is not the year of the good business deal, this is not the year of anything other than the year of the Lord. And if we can live in that dedication and in that purity, we will remain with our sight. We will not go blind again. We will not be put under the devil’s thumb again unless we choose to go there. This is the great freedom and love that God has given us.
Then there’s the crowd. That’s all of us. They said, “We’ve never heard anything like this before.” And I would like to suggest that although we hear it year after year after year, today is like a new first for us, to open our eyes, to see God, to allow him to free us from sin, because he came to save us as our Savior, as he promised so many centuries ago, thousands of years ago, he promised. Don’t wait for tomorrow. Today is the day. Today is the day that our Lord came for us. And so let’s go with him. Let’s join him in heaven. Let’s join him in that life.
And to help you just a little bit, I offered you a little self-evaluation in the bulletin. You are the only one who will see your answers. But if you are open with your hearts and you answer the questions, and strive for God, I promise you this will be the year of the Lord in our lives. And if we don’t get it perfect, because we didn’t get it perfect last year or the year before, God always gives us a chance to start fresh. Let’s take that chance today. Happy New Year May God continue to bless us and to lead us into his kingdom. Glory to God for all things.
