The beginning of the Galilean ministry of Jesus
It’s the 3rd Sunday in the Ordinary Time and today’s gospel is quite timely because Cebu plays host to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress as it speaks of the beginning of the Galilean Ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ which you can be read in Luke 1:1-4; 4: 14-21.
“1 Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, 3 I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. 15 He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. 16 He 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 17 and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
18 “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. 19 and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” 20 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. 21 He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in you hearing.”
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In reading the scroll in the synagogue of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus Christ, he tells his fellow Nazoreans “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!” What part of the scroll did our Lord Jesus Christ read in the synagogue? You can find this scripture in Isaiah 61. Let me print that for you.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”
It was probably the only time that Jews heard someone say, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!” The most important part of Isaiah 61 was the first part, when Jesus read it to his fellow Nazoreans, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.” Isaiah 61 is actually a messianic prophecy, which uses the word “The Anointed One”, which also means Messiah, the Christ.
So with that statement by our Lord Jesus Christ in the synagogue in his hometown in Nazareth, the Lord begins his Galilean Ministry. Three years ago, we were blessed to go to the Holy Land and Exie our Tour Guide gave us a bit of information as we were sailing in a boat in the sea of Galilee that Capernaum was considered the home base
of our Lord Jesus Christ as Galilee was in the ancient crossroads if one is going to Syria or Palestine or to the Mediterranean Sea.
As we know from the Bible, the Sea of Galilee is where our Lord Jesus Christ performed many miracles, preached his sermons on the shore on board fishing boats. Near the shoreline, you can still see the ancient ruins of the house of Peter, which a round Chapel was constructed above it. One of the benefactors of that chapel is the late Don Ramon Durano, Sr. It was in Peter’s house that our Lord Jesus Christ cured Peter’s mother-in-law and where the blind paralytic was lowered down from the roof of the house.
Just 50 feet away from Peter’s house is the synagogue in Capernaum, where for sure the Lord Jesus Christ preached the good news of the gospel. When I visited that synagogue, it was there that I prayed to the Lord, thanking him for giving me the opportunity to be able to visit the places where he preached and in Bethlehem where he was born and in Jerusalem where he was crucified and where exactly he ascended into heaven.
The Galilean Ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ included the Sermon on the Mount or plainly called the Beatitudes and where the multiplication of the loaves happened. Then after the Lord had risen from the dead he appeared to his disciples on the shores of Lake Galilee where a small chapel of the Primacy of Peter is located, where he asked Peter “Do you love me?” three times to which Peter replied yes three times and Jesus showed him Love despite Peter’s denying the Lord three times, which he prophesied.
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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.
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