Jesus Saves

Reflection on Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

Today's Gospel passage shows Jesus making a statement of his mission, what the Father sent him into the world to do. In a nutshell, his mission was to liberate people from all forms of oppression: physical, mental and spiritual. That was what the Prophet Isaiah had said the Messiah would do. And Jesus came to do precisely that.

One of the ways by which Jesus liberated people who were oppressed was through his miracles. Another was by forgiving their sins. Yet another was by freeing them from the yoke of religious oppression that the religious establishment (the high priests, the Pharisees and the scribes) had put around their necks. Jesus did this last one by providing enlightenment for the people, freeing them from ignorance with his truth. “If you will make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32).

The mission of Jesus is also the mission of the Church, since Jesus founded the Church to continue his mission on earth for all time and in all places. Since the very beginning, the Church has understood her mission and been in the forefront of the struggle against oppression in its various forms in the civil society and even within the Church herself. The track record of the Church in this regard has been second to none.

The same cannot be said about individual members of the Church. Over the centuries there have been people in the Church who visited untold hardship and oppression on their fellow men and women. The same sort of people can still be found in the Church today. Maybe they are even here in our own parish, St. Leo's: people who oppress others physically, mentally and spiritually, people who visit religious oppression on their fellow believers (the modern day Pharisees).

As disciples of Jesus and members of the Church he founded, we should join in the struggle against oppression wherever we find it. We should never see anyone being oppressed by another, and look the other way. We should tell the oppressor in very dear terms to stop, and deploy all lawful means available to us to stop him. Jesus and the Church expect nothing less from us. It is their mission. It has to be our own mission too. <>