First Reading - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Gospel - Luke 4:16-30
In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul speaks to a community grieving the loss of loved ones. He reminds them that Christian mourning is not like the hopeless grief of the world. Because Christ died and rose again, death is not the end but the doorway into eternal life. Those who have fallen asleep in Him will rise, and together we will be with the Lord forever. This is the hope that sustains us: the certainty that love is stronger than death and that our story does not end in the grave, but in glory.
In the Gospel, Jesus stands in the synagogue and proclaims the words of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed.” With these words, Jesus announces that He is the fulfillment of God’s promises. Yet the people, unable to accept the challenge of His message, reject Him. Their hearts clung to familiarity and pride rather than opening to the hope He offered.
Dear friends, hope, then, is not only about the future—it transforms how we live today. To hope in Christ is to let His Spirit open our eyes to the poor, the suffering, and the forgotten around us. It is to live with the conviction that God’s kingdom is already breaking into our world and that we are called to be instruments of His healing and freedom.
Let us ask ourselves: Do we live with this hope? Do we allow Christ’s promises to shape how we face difficulties, how we treat others, and how we see the future? Or do we, like those in Nazareth, resist the hope He offers because it challenges our comfort and calls us to change?
May we hold fast to the hope that Christ gives, a hope that never deceives, and let that hope guide our daily lives until the day when faith gives way to sight and we share forever in the joy of His presence.
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