(Audio)
And his commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
The commandments are not burdensome. We believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We love them by obeying his commandments. Loving God cannot exclude loving our neighbor who was made by God and who is intensely loved by God. Doesn't this already sound like a burden? Doesn't it sound like more work than we would otherwise have to do?
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Through our faith in him we experience these commandments not as extra work but as victory. We feel the love to which we are called flowing from God through us, into our own faith and our own love. We find ourselves loving beyond what we thought were our limits. As we realize that this call to love does not rely on us and our strength but rather on the fact that we are begotten by God and have received his Spirit we begin to experience the commandments as genuine victory. It is not our own victory by our own strength. It is the victory of Christ manifest in us.
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,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
We experience in ourselves what Jesus proclaims, because he has given us the same Spirit. As Jesus is anointed to bring glad tidings to the poor so too are way. As he proclaims liberty to those in chains whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, so too do we. As he heals the physically and spiritually blind we do as well. We too are called to set free all those who are oppressed. Through us the year acceptable to the Lord is now proclaimed.
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
This "Today" is the same as when Jesus first proclaimed it because he is the same, yesterday, today and forever (see Hebrews 13:8). Let us enter more deeply into this union that Jesus offers us and so experience the victory he promises.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
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