Third Sunday of Advent – 17th December 2023
In today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah we come upon the passage that Jesus quoted when he read scripture in the Synagogue of Nazareth. The passage begins: ‘The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favour from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God.’
If we cry out to God for help when we suffer a crisis or a traumatic event, how much more must people whose very way of life is a continual crisis call out to God. People who are oppressed, people who are trying to bring their children up in neighbourhoods where crime and drugs rule, people who are physically or mentally challenged, people who are suffering pain afflicted upon them by an unfaithful spouse, a dishonest business partner or a wayward adult child, people who are hungry for food that cannot be found or who need medicine for their children that they cannot afford; how many times do these people cry out to God?