Proclamation of the Jubilee Year
Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21

Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF
Claretian Missionary

“The Spirit of the Lord…” is the first sermon of Jesus in the gospel of Luke. He had been busy healing and casting out evils in Capernaum. But he chose his hometown to make his first public sermon. He went to the synagogue on that Sabbath. The people of Nazareth had heard of his miracles in Capernaum and was awaiting some miracles.

Knowing his popularity in Capernaum, Jesus was given to read from the Prophets and give a small sermon about it. He found the passage from Isaiah, proclaiming the year of the Lord, and read it. The year of the Lord is the Jubilee Year. Reading it was not offensive at all. But what he said after that was offensive! He said, “In your hearing, the scripture is fulfilled.” The words fulfilled were not just his anointment by the Spirit but also the proclamation of the Jubilee Year.

Proclaiming the Jubilee year is a revolution. It has far-reaching consequences. The most significant change in ordinary lives is that it restores equality among all the children of Israel. All the property bought and sold should be returned to the original owners. Life will start anew. The poor people will become owners of the land. All inequalities will be removed. This is madness! Who is he to proclaim the Jubilee Year? Who is he to liberate the poor, the disadvantaged, the blind, and the deaf!

The people grew indignant at him. So they discredited him by pointing out his relatives and disproving his authority to proclaim the Jubilee Year. The proclamation of the Jubilee Year entails a change in the lifestyle of everyone. This is a threat to those enjoying the properties of the poor had to face. So they found it easier to throw him out than start the resolution and restoration of justice through a Jubilee Year.

As long as spirituality involves some pious practices, religious rituals, and listening to good sermons, it has many takers. If it is sufficiently interspersed with some magical display of miracles, the better. When we are asked to change our lifestyles, suddenly the preacher falls out of favor! Oh, the games we play! The prospects of equality often threaten us. We are often threatened by the idea of seeing the poor man in the street equal to us! We all resist such equalization formulas.

On another note, Jesus carefully chose that passage referring to his agency in the act. He had chosen a text representing his sense of awareness of being anointed by the Spirit after his baptism and the authority invested on him to declare the Jubilee Year and proclaim liberty. He is also aware of the programme of action cut for him through the anointment of the Spirit.

Every mission becomes successful only when there is clarity in the communication between the one who sends and the one who is sent. A clarity is required on the purpose of the mission, the method to employ, and the criteria to judge the success. There is an interesting anecdote of John the Baptist sending his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah or they should expect someone else! The answer of Jesus is based on this programmatic statement of the Messianic action (Luke 7:18–23). Jesus replies to the Baptist’s disciples, “The blind see, the deaf hears, the persons with leprosy are healed, and the lame walk….” It is a clear indication of how Jesus was aware of his mission, and his work followed a pre-meditated pattern and what the fruits of the mission would be. Jesus was a man with ultimate focus!

The success of our mission also depends on the clarity of the purpose of the mission, the method of the mission, and the metrics to evaluate success. Many missions suffer either because clarity is lost, or awareness of the mission is lost. Keeping ourselves focused on the mission is possible only when we learn to move with the Spirit, whose anointment is the disembarkation point of our mission as congregations, as communities, and individuals.

© Claretian Publications, Macau
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica 2025