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     The Gospel According to Luke suddenly appears today because we came to the "end" of Jesus' ministry in the Gospel According to Matthew last week.  Those who follow these things know that we are in Year B [the year of Mark] on the Sunday cycle, which means the Sunday scriptures will be taken from the Gospel According to Mark.  However, on the daily cycle, "Year II" right now, the shortness of the Gospel According to Mark means there's not enough to fill out the Ordinary days, so Matthew and Luke are called on to supplement.  So, today we go back to the beginning of Jesus' ministry in the Gospel According to Luke, with the scene of his first preaching in his home town of Nazareth.

     The words, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing," are Jesus' direct challenge to the faith of his own people.  He has just read a passage from Isaiah that describes the mission of the Messiah.  The reactions are first positive, then increasingly negative.  Some begin to remember that they have known this son of the carpenter since he was a kid and start asking how HE could be the figure described in the passage from Isaiah.  When Jesus challenges their lack of faith, they run him out of town.  The Gospel According to Luke thus inaugurates Jesus' long pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which begins with rejection in his own hometown in Galilee.

     The mission described in Isaiah, however, is a challenge to us as well.  At parish missions I tell the parishioners that the words of fulfillment from Jesus should be ours as well - a message of "glad tidings" to the poor, to captives and the oppressed.  Within our own parishes, this may meet with a kind of rejection in words like: "Who does he/she think they are!  How dare they preach to US!"  Well, by virtue of our baptism, we are called to do exactly what may cause those reactions!  We not only think we are Christians, but we are daring enough to preach the "glad tidings" - the "evangelium" which means Good News!  When the Good News of Jesus Christ becomes yesterday's news and no longer challenges us in our routine Catholicism, we get set in our ways and resent anyone who tries to challenge our status quo.  If we feel rejected when we try to bear witness to our faith, we might remember that we are in good company!  AMEN