Fr Paul notes that the prophetic vision Jesus brings to his hometown in today’s gospel doesn’t go over well with its inhabitants. Their vision has narrowed to just themselves, while Jesus’ wider vision includes all who are vulnerable. If, unlike the townsfolk of Nazareth, we wish to embrace Jesus, then we must first open our minds and hearts to those whom Jesus sees.
If we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
1 THES 4:13-18
Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went … into the synagogue … [and read from] a scroll of the prophet Isaiah… “The Spirit of the Lord … has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor … proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
LK 4:16-30