Filled with the Spirit of God

 

Welcome to my blog and peace be with you.

Here you will find the Word of God, prescribed for us by the Catholic Church.

If we listen to his Word and not just shrug it off, then it will transform our lives.

May the Spirit of God anoint each of us who listen.

 

Monday 31 August 2020

Filled with the Spirit of God

 

First reading

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ·

The only knowledge I claimed was of the crucified Christ

When I came to you, brothers, it was not with any show of oratory or philosophy, but simply to tell you what God had guaranteed. During my stay with you, the only knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus, and only about him as the crucified Christ. Far from relying on any power of my own, I came among you in great ‘fear and trembling’ and in my speeches and the sermons that I gave, there were none of the arguments that belong to philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the Spirit. And I did this so that your faith should not depend on human philosophy but on the power of God. THE WORD OF THE LORD

Prayerful reflection

Everything in the Church and in our lives must centre on Jesus the Christ and Jesus, Son of God, who humbled himself for our sake and became a slave and gave his life on the Cross. The ignominy of crucifixion was meant to destroy a person in every way, even before he died. God underwent this nadir of suffering for each one of us. In this way he has proven his love for us. This is the centre of our faith and must always be so explicitly.

The power in the Church and in everyone in the Church does not come from worldly resources, learning, power, and wealth, but from the manifestation of the power of the Spirit of God among us. If the Spirit does not set us on fire, we will be unable to do anything for God and therefore for human beings.

 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 118(119):97-102

Lord, how I love your law!

Lord, how I love your law!

It is ever in my mind.

Your command makes me wiser than my foes;

for it is mine for ever.

Lord, how I love your law!

I have more insight than all who teach me

for I ponder your will.

I have more understanding than the old

for I keep your precepts.

Lord, how I love your law!

I turn my feet from evil paths

to obey your word.

I have not turned from your decrees;

you yourself have taught me.

Lord, how I love your law!

 

Gospel

Luke 4:16-30

'This text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen'

Jesus came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:

The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,

for he has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring the 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.

He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, ‘This is Joseph’s son, surely?’

But he replied, ‘No doubt you will quote me the saying, “Physician, heal yourself” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.”’

And he went on, ‘I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.

‘There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.’

When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away. THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD

 

Prayerful reflection

Jesus has come to his own village, where he is well known. In the previous verse, not in our reading today, Luke tells us that he came in the power of the Spirit. Now he will announce that he is anointed with God’s Spirit. Like iron in the furnace is transformed by the heat, so Jesus is transformed in his humanity by the Spirit. He is on fire. Unless we too are anointed and set on fire by the Spirit of God we will be ineffective in our life. Only the Spirit of God can give life to this ‘lump of earth’ from which we are made.

The Spirit makes Jesus read out to others to liberate them and give them the joy of God. Likewise, if the Spirit of God anoints us, we too will reach out to others to bring them the gifts of God.

The people of Nazareth have ears, but they do not hear. They throw Jesus out. He will never go back to their village. We have ears. Do we use them to listen to God speaking to us through his Son?