Isaiah 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9
The herald of good tidings
[6] [B]ut you shall be called the priests of the Lord,
men shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
[8] I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
[9] Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
and their offspring in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
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Commentary:
1-11. Into the air of great joy reflected in the previous hymn, the prophet inserts
this very important oracle about the new messenger (vv. 1-3). The rest of the
chapter is made up of three stanzas that celebrate the wonders of the holy city.
These can be seen in profound, spiritual renewal (vv. 4-7), perfect fulfillment of
the promises made to the ancient patriarchs (vv. 8-9), and joy-in-worship, com-
parable to that of a bridegroom and bride, or that of the farmer on seeing a rich
harvest (vv. 10-11).
The remarkable events and features of the city point to the time of the End, the
time of the Lord’s definitive, salvific intervention. In this context, these new things
are ultimate and definitive. Because in the New Testament the Church is called
“God’s building” (1 Cor 3:9), erected on the foundation of the apostles (1 Cor 3:
11), Christian tradition has seen the new, glorious Jerusalem as a symbol of the
Church that makes its way through this world and will be made manifest at the
end of time (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 756-757).
61:1-3 This very compact oracle depicts the eschatological messenger speaking
a soliloquy. It is one of the key passages in the book of Isaiah. It clearly has con-
nexions with the songs of the Servant, especially the second song (49:1-6). The
pouring out of the Spirit involves anointing, as in the case of the king (cf. 11:2)
and in that of the Servant of the Lord (42:1). But the messenger is more than a
king, more than a prophet, more than the community dwelling in the holy city in
the latter days. His mission is a dual one — to be a messenger and a comforter.
As a messenger, like a king’s ambassador in times of war, he brings good ti-
dings: he announces redemption for slaves, release for prisoners (cf. Jer 34:8,
17). His message proclaims a new order of things where there will be no need for
repression, and where concord and well-being will prevail. The “year of the Lord’s
favour” (v. 2) is similar to the jubilee year (cf. Lev 25:9-19) or the sabbatical year
(cf. Ex 21:2-11; Jer 34:14; Ezek 46:17) in the sense that it is a day chosen by
the Lord, and different from any other; but here it means the point at which God
shows himself to be most gracious and bestows definitive salvation (cf. 49:8). It
is also called the day of vengeance (v. 2) because on that day, essentially a day
of good news, the wicked, too, will receive their just deserts.
As a comforter he will bind up hearts broken by illness or misfortune, and give en-
couragement to those who weep and revive those who mourn in Zion. When the
comforter is the Lord or a messenger of his (cf. 40:1), one can expect him to re-
establish his people, to set things right, (the way they were at the beginning), to
renew the broken Covenant and re-establish institutions that had been disman-
tled, that is, bring about a situation where everything is in plentiful supply.
People who have reached rock bottom (the poor, prisoners, etc.) will be given a
place of honour on that day, and a wreath, perfume and a mantle of praise (v. 3).
In sacred texts of the post-exilic period, the concept of the “poor” (or “afflicted”:
cf. note m) already went beyond the social category of those least well off: it had
a religious connotation, meaning “the humble”, those who saw themselves as ha-
ving no value before God and who simply put their faith in his divine mercy. The
final definition of the “poor” will emerge in the Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-12).
In Jesus’ time, Jewish tradition, found in the targum or Aramaic translation of the
Bible, considered the messenger described here to be a prophet (and for that rea-
son it introduced this oracle with the words “Thus says the prophet”). So, when
Jesus reads this passage in the synagogue of Nazareth he points out that “today
the scripture has been fulfilled” (Lk 4:21) and that he is the prophet of whom Isai-
ah spoke. By doing so, he is saying that he is the Messiah, the Christ, the one
anointed by the Holy Spirit (cf. Is 11:2), not so much as a king but as a prophet
who proclaims salvation. Ever since then, Christian teaching sees Jesus as the
last messenger sent by the Holy Spirit: “The prophet presents the Messiah as
the one who comes in the Holy Spirit, the one who possesses the fullness of
this Spirit in himself and at the same time for others, for Israel, for all the nations,
for all humanity. The fullness of the Spirit of God is accompanied by many diffe-
rent gifts, the treasures of salvation, destined in a particular way for the poor and
suffering, for all those who open their hearts to these gifts — sometimes through
the painful experience of their own existence — but first of all through that interior
availability which comes from faith. The aged Simeon, the ‘righteous and devout
man’ upon whom ‘rested the Holy Spirit’, sensed this at the moment of Jesus’
presentation in the Temple, when he perceived in him the ‘salvation … prepared
in the presence of all peoples’ at the price of the great suffering — the Cross —
which he would have to embrace together with his Mother. The Virgin Mary, who
“had conceived by the Holy Spirit’, sensed this even more clearly, when she pon-
dered in her heart the “mysteries” of the Messiah, with whom she was associa-
ted” (Dominum et Vivficantem, 16).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Luke 4:16-21
Jesus Preaches in Nazareth
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Commentary:
16-30. For the Jews the Sabbath was a day of rest and prayer, as God comman-
ded (Exodus 20:8-11). On that day they would gather together to be instructed
in Sacred Scripture. At the beginning of this meeting they all recited the “She-
ma”, a summary of the precepts of the Lord, and the “eighteen blessings”. Then
a passage was read from the Book of the Law — the Pentateuch — and another
from the Prophets. The president invited one of those present who was well ver-
sed in the Scriptures to address the gathering. Sometimes someone would vo-
lunteer and request the honor of being allowed to give this address — as must
have happened on this occasion. Jesus avails Himself of this opportunity to in-
struct the people (cf. Luke 4:16ff), as will His Apostles later on (cf. Acts 13:5,
14, 42, 44; 14:1; etc.). The Sabbath meeting concluded with the priestly bles-
sing, recited by the president or by a priest if there was one present, to which
the people answered “Amen” (cf. Numbers 6:22ff).
18-21. Jesus read the passage from Isaiah 61:1-2 where the prophet announces
the coming of the Lord, who will free His people of their afflictions. In Christ this
prophecy finds its fulfillment, for He is the Anointed, the Messiah whom God has
sent to His people in their tribulation. Jesus has been anointed by the Holy Spirit
for the mission the Father has entrusted to Him. “These phrases, according to
Luke (verses 18-19), are His first messianic declaration. They are followed by the
actions and words known through the Gospel. By these actions and words Christ
makes the Father present among men” (Bl. John Paul II, “Dives In Misericordia”,
3).
The promises proclaimed in verses 18 and 19 are the blessings God will send
His people through the Messiah. According to Old Testament tradition and Je-
sus’ own preaching (cf. note on Matthew 5:3), “the poor” refers not so much to
a particular social condition as to a very religious attitude of indigence and humi-
lity towards God, which is to be found in those who, instead of relying on their
possessions and merits, trust in God’s goodness and mercy. Thus, preaching
good news to the poor means bringing them the “good news” that God has taken
pity on them. Similarly, the Redemption, the release, which the text mentions, is
to be understood mainly in a spiritual, transcendental sense: Christ has come to
free us from the blindness and oppression of sin, which, in the last analysis, is
slavery imposed on us by the devil. “Captivity can be felt”, St. John Chrysostom
teaches in a commentary on Psalm 126, “when it proceeds from physical ene-
mies, but the spiritual captivity referred to here is worse; sin exerts a more se-
vere tyranny, evil takes control and blinds those who lend it obedience; from this
spiritual prison Jesus Christ rescued us” (”Catena Aurea”). However, this pas-
sage is also in line with Jesus’ special concern for those most in need. “Similar-
ly, the Church encompasses with her love all those who are afflicted by human
misery and she recognizes in those who are poor and who suffer the image of
her poor and suffering Founder. She does all in her power to relieve their need
and in them she strives to serve Christ” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 8).
18-19. The words of Isaiah which Christ read out on this occasion describe very
graphically the reason why God has sent His Son into the world—to redeem men
from sin, to liberate them from slavery to the devil and from eternal death. It is
true that in the course of His public ministry Christ, in His mercy, worked many
cures, cast out devils, etc. But He did not cure all the sick people in the world,
nor did He eliminate all forms of distress in this life, because pain, which entered
the world through sin, has a permanent redemptive value when associated with
the sufferings of Christ. Therefore, Christ worked miracles not so much to re-
lease the people concerned from suffering, as to demonstrate that He had a
God-given mission to bring everyone to eternal salvation.
The Church carries on this mission of Christ: “Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). These simple
and sublime words, which conclude the Gospel of St. Matthew, point out “the ob-
ligation to preach the truths of faith, the need for sacramental life, the promise of
Christ’s continual assistance to His Church. You cannot be faithful to our Lord if
you neglect these supernatural demands—to receive instruction in Christian faith
and morality and to frequent the Sacraments. It is with this mandate that Christ
founded His Church [...]. And the Church can bring salvation to souls only if she
remains faithful to Christ in her constitution and teaching, both dogmatic and
moral.
“Let us reject, therefore, the suggestion that the Church, ignoring the Sermon on
the Mount, seeks a purely human happiness on earth, since we know that her on-
ly task is to bring men to eternal glory in Heaven. Let us reject any purely natura-
listic view that fails to value the supernatural role of divine grace. Let us reject ma-
terialistic opinions that exclude spiritual values from human life. Let us equally re-
ject any secularizing theory which attempts to equate the aims of the Church
with those of earthly states, distorting its essence, institutions and activities into
something similar to those of temporal society” (St. J. Escriva, “In Love with the
Church”, 23 and 31).
18. The Fathers of the Church see in this verse a reference to the three persons
of the Holy Trinity: the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) of the Lord (the Father) is upon Me
(the Son); cf. Origen, “Homily 32”. The Holy Spirit dwelt in Christ’s soul from the
very moment of the Incarnation and descended visibly upon Him in the form of a
dove when He was baptized by John (cf. Luke 3:21-22).
“Because He has anointed Me”: this is a reference to the anointing Jesus re-
ceived at the moment of His Incarnation, principally through the grace of the hy-
postatic union. “This anointing of Jesus Christ was not an anointing of the body
as in the case of the ancient kings, priests and prophets; rather it was entirely
spiritual and divine, because the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him substan-
tially” (”St. Pius X Catechism”, 77). From this hypostatic union the fullness of all
graces derives. To show this, Jesus Christ is said to have been anointed by the
Holy Spirit Himself — not just to have received the graces and gifts of the Spirit,
like the saints.
19. “The acceptable year”: this is a reference to the jubilee year of the Jews,
which the Law of God (Leviticus 25:8) lays down as occurring every fifty years,
symbolizing the era of redemption and liberation which the Messiah would usher
in. The era inaugurated by Christ, the era of the New Law extending to the end
of the world, is “the acceptable year”, the time of mercy and redemption, which
will be obtained definitively in Heaven.
The Catholic Church’s custom of the “Holy Year” is also designed to proclaim
and remind people of the redemption brought by Christ, and of the full form it
will take in the future life.
20-22. Christ’s words in verse 21 show us the authenticity with which He
preached and explained the Scriptures: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled
in your hearing.” Jesus teaches that this prophecy, like the other main prophe-
cies in the Old Testament, refers to Him and finds its fulfillment in Him (cf. Luke
24:44ff). Thus, the Old Testament can be rightly understood only in the light of
the New — as the risen Christ showed the Apostles when He opened their minds
to understand the Scriptures (cf. Luke 24:45), an understanding which the Holy
Spirit perfected on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:4).
22-29. At first the people of Nazareth listened readily to the wisdom of Jesus’s
words. But they were very superficial; in their narrow-minded pride they felt hurt
that Jesus, their fellow-townsman, had not worked in Nazareth the wonders He
had worked elsewhere. They presume they have a special entitlement and they
insolently demand that He perform miracles to satisfy their vanity, not to change
their hearts. In view of their attitude, Jesus performs no miracle (His normal re-
sponse to lack of faith: cf., for example, His meeting with Herod in Luke 23:7-11);
He actually reproaches them, using two examples taken from the Old Testament
(cf. 1 Kings 17:9 and 2 Kings 5:14), which show that one needs to be well-dis-
posed if miracles are to lead to faith. His attitude so wounds their pride that they
are ready to kill Him. This whole episode is a good lesson about understanding
Jesus. We can understand Him only if we are humble and are genuinely resolved
to make ourselves available to Him.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.