Both the vertical and horizontal dimension of the cross in which our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ hung for love of us serves as a great and loving reminder; that He died not just for you and me but for all of us! That by liberating us from sin we are not just united in Him individually but with one another in Him. Therefore all of God’s children are One Body through our Lord Jesus Christ. Can we then say we love God but not our sister and brother in Christ?
Unforgiveness is in a sense a habitual sin! Why? Because we regularly by our own volition, refuse to allow God’s love and mercy to overshadow us. To allow His grace to set both our heart and that of our brethren free from the hurt, guilt and pain. Unintentionally perhaps we are saying that our Unforgiveness is greater than God’s love and mercy! Why should we allow ourselves to remain captives of the injustice done against us? Let our Lord set us free from all bondages so that we can live free and live to the full in His love as His disciples.
And as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will proclaim His love to all that we meet. We shall bring the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ to the poor, to proclaim His liberation to all captives of sin, His healing grace will come upon those who turn to Him and He will set the downtrodden free. That Jesus our Lord loves you and me, He loves us all! Amen
First reading
1 John 4:19-5:4
Anyone who loves God must also love his brother
We are to love, because God loved us first.
Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen.
So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother.
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ
has been begotten by God; and whoever loves the Father that begot him loves the child whom he begets.
We can be sure that we love God’s children
if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us; this is what loving God is –
keeping his commandments; and his commandments are not difficult, because anyone who has been begotten by God
has already overcome the world; this is the victory over the world – our faith.
Gospel
Luke 4:14-22
‘This text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen’
Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him.
He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.
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