Forming Good Stewards

“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke: 4:21

Jesus, his parents and grandparents lived in the small town of Nazareth that had a population of about 400 people and would have fit inside the physical boundaries of an average sized parish. In the synagogue at Nazareth, after reading a passage from Isaiah, Jesus declared, “Today this passage is fulfilled in your hearing … 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.” How would you react if someone you know in your parish stood up and said that? Now imagine the speaker says to you, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon you…” and you have been sent to do all of those things. As a result of our Baptism and Confirmation, the Spirit is upon us and we have an obligation to do all those things—and more.