First Reading: Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-30
Gospel: Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Other translations will say a “year of favor”. In the book of Leviticus, this is referred to as “the jubilee year”. When, then, your countryman becomes so impoverished beside you that he sells you his services, do not make him work as a slave. Rather, let him be like a hired servant or like your tenant, working with you until the jubilee year, when he, together with his children, shall be released from your service and return to his kindred and to the property of his ancestors. (Lv25:39-41) The poor man who sold his property because of his poverty, got it back in the jubilee year. (Lv25:23-28)
The jubilee year was a “year of restoration”. Debts of the poor were canceled. Jesus announces “a year acceptable to the Lord”. This is the era of the Messiah. The debt of sin will be canceled.
Each time we go to Confession, the debt of our sin is canceled. We experience a “jubilee year” in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We can not cancel or pay the debt ourselves. Jesus already has… In 1Pt2:24 we read: In his own body he brought your sins to the cross, so that all of us, dead to sin, could live in accord with God’s will. By his wounds you were healed.
Jesus invites us to imitate his incredible generosity – as He has loved and forgiven us, so must we do the same to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
God bless you always!
Deacon Mike