Today Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (4: 14-22) in which Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Nazareth where he had been brought up and read from the scriptures in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

Fr Paul says Luke adapts and expands Mark’s story of the rejection of Jesus at Nazareth and presents it as Jesus’ speech setting out his future plans. Luke is a Hellenistic historian, and uses the techniques of those historians, putting into the mouth of the main characters an explanation of what is going on.

So, Jesus here explains his mission. It is an electrifying scene as Jesus unrolls the scroll and stops at that central passage of Isaiah, applying to himself the prophecy of the coming of the Spirit. Then he explodes their expectations by applying it not to the Chosen People but to outsiders, quoting the two precedents from the activity of earlier prophets. But this is his programme, stressed by Luke, the evangelist of the gentiles, who will repeatedly lay his emphasis on the approach of Jesus to Samaritans, outcasts and gentiles.

After this, it can hardly be surprising that the people of Nazareth are enraged at Jesus and attempt to do away with him.

In closing Fr Paul notes the importance of this reading at this stage of the year and in the current sequence of Gospel readings is that the apostolate of the Church is worldwide. The disciples of Jesus must spread his message not merely to those close to themselves but to all the world.