Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For students returning to Lasallian schools this week, that they find in their classrooms teachers who know their names and expect good things of them.
Today’s Gospel | Luke 4:16-30
Jesus 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. They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’” And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
From the Eleventh Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
This is why those who guide young children must reprove them, as Saint Paul says, with all the force of authority to make them return from their wandering and rescue them from the snares of the demon who holds them captive to his will. In effect, it can be said with reason that a child who has acquired a habit of sin has in some sense lost his freedom and has made himself a miserable captive, according to what Jesus Christ says, the one who commits sin is the slave of sin.
Prayer
Eternal Father, your Son read out the words about glad tidings to the poor and liberty to captives and said they were fulfilled that day. The room admired him until he explained what it meant, and then it turned on him. Give us the nerve to say the second part. Let that passage be a job description in our schools and not only a reading. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.