By Nicholas Soellner
Associate Director of the Office of Catechesis
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … to bring good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18; cf. Isaiah 61:1).
The news, whether reported on television, YouTube or social media, has perhaps never been so divisive, at least in recent cultural memory. It’s not only the content of the stories, but the manner in which they are shared. Even if unconsciously, we listen to news, asking, “Who’s this message for?” We place internal filters in our minds as a way to identify information that’s truly relevant to us and to keep the “background noise” at bay. Although this can be a good and natural thing, we often over apply that filter and can miss out on messages that were, in fact, meant for us. Unfortunately, this “tuning out” also often follows us into church. How many homilies have we heard and then forgotten before we even got home? I’m no exception; the number of truly memorable homilies that I would say were impactful, if not life-changing, still pales in comparison to the number I’ve quickly forgotten. This filter also tends to follow us into our time when we engage with the Bible. How many times do we read or hear the words of Jesus and think, “Oh, that message isn’t for me. That’s for those people.”? Let me assure you, this year’s Catechetical Sunday scripture passage is definitely for you.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” I want to include the passages that follow as well, because they are essential to understanding what this “good news” is. “He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). It isn’t obvious to us in the 21st century, even when reading this story in its full context, but Jesus is doing something very significant in Nazareth here, so stay with me. By proclaiming it an “acceptable year of the Lord,” he’s announcing the Jubilee. Back in the book of Leviticus, Moses was commanded by God to keep every seventh year, a sabbatical, just like the seventh day, the sabbath, holy. A year of rest. And at the end of every seventh grouping of seven years, you’d have a Jubilee announced on the 50th year. As Dr. John Bergsma explains in his book “Jesus and the Jubilee,” the four principal goods of a jubilee year were forgiveness, freedom, family and fullness.
Lots of people ended up losing their freedom due to debts, selling off possessions, their land and even themselves into indentured servitude. At the Jubilee, those debts were forgiven, land was restored and the people who were kept apart from their families to work off debts they couldn’t pay were sent home to once again live a full life with their loved ones. This journey home is where we get the concept of a pilgrimage. Every family would have a “liberator kinsman” who would go to settle debts and free relatives on their behalf. Jesus is that liberator: “I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you.” (John 14:18). In Jesus’ time, the Jewish people would have normally only celebrated the Jubilee once every 50 years. Once proclaimed by Jesus, this divinely commanded celebration is now eternal.
You may not be financially poor, incarcerated, estranged from family or particularly unsatisfied with life at this moment. This message is still for you. The poor are anyone who suffers from spiritual, emotional or physical poverty as well as financial. Our slavery is more often to sin and bad habits that we picked up while trying to liberate ourselves from the suffering of our lives. For a lot of people in America, we are far more likely to be spiritually and emotionally impoverished than financially. But the Lord cares about our well-being on all these fronts. He left us his Church to be a permanent institution of forgiveness, and his priests and bishops are his chief forgivers. That’s why we have the sacrament of reconciliation so widely and often available. The parish is meant to be a living sign of God’s ongoing concern for our welfare. All the goods of the Jubilee should be made available there. Even though the Church announces a new Jubilee from time to time, it isn’t like the Jubilee Christ announced has ever ended. The good news is that this time of radical forgiveness, freedom, family and fullness of life is here to stay — never to end or be taken away. So be certain: this good news is definitely for you.
Nicholas Soellner serves as associate director for the Diocese of Evansville Office of Catechesis.