Reflection for January 6, Thursday after Epiphany: Luke 4:14-22

Gospel: Luke 4:14-22

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. 

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to 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.  

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

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Reflection:

Are you living and fulfilling your baptismal mission?  

We have a mission for our existence, we are not mere vapors in this world we are human beings. We were anointed by God thru the Sacrament of Baptism to share in the mission of Jesus. Have we shared His words in the bible, have we already helped the poor, the hungry the oppressed and the homeless?  

It is very important that from time to time we have a self-evaluation of our lives in this world. For we may just be living our lives according to what this world dictates us to do. For example, the dictum of this world about self-gratification and wanton accumulation of material wealth. 

What would happen to us if we embrace this world and we purposely forget the teaching of Jesus? We would end up walking and breathing in this world without a purpose.  

God did not create us to become creatures of this world. He created us not to accumulate wealth! He created us so that we could share whatever material and intellectual wealth that we have.  God did not create us to live our life according to the dictates of this world. God created us to live our life according to the life of Jesus.  

Let us therefore live the life of Jesus, let us spread His teachings. There are more rewards in doing this than embracing the dictates of this world. Worldly satisfactions are short-lived and problem filled that is sugar coated with enticing pleasures.  

Pleasures that do not last, pleasures that only plunge us to deeper enslavement of the devil and pleasures that will eventually destroy us. – Marino J. Dasmarinas