Channel 7- Eyewitness News! We often can turn on any news channel or station and experience eyewitness news- happening right now. Not unusual for our day and age. Today's Gospel provides us with this opportunity. "Today", Jesus says, "this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." Today, I have come to announce good news to the poor; to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed! Today, it is fulfilled in your hearing!

Imagine what the people, who had the good fortune to come to the synagogue that day, were thinking. As well as hearing what Jesus was proclaiming, they could have unconsciously been asking themselves. "Do I need? Do I desire? Do I believe? Do I trust?" Or they could have just dismissed this "heaven on earth" touch of love!

Often when I support and pray with the patients and families in our homecare agency I take Jesus at his word- Now is the day of salvation. Someone is depressed or in pain, or angry and burdened in so many ways.

"Do you believe"? "Do you desire"? "Do you trust"? "Do you need"? This is what is in my mind as I listen, ask and pray in their name for those who cannot verbalize their sentiments. We are not called to suppress our situation/feelings, but rather to express them and trust in the healing love and mercy of God helping us at that moment.

"God I feel terribly discouraged, alone and sad. But I trust in you. I know you are with me now, bringing me peace and comfort. I thank you for I know you are working in my life, now."

Jesus knew the needs of the people- poor, captive, oppressed, blind. Jesus had enough faith and self understanding in his calling to do the loving work of God. Our calling also! Surely some of those who heard Jesus went away shaking their heads. Some may have gone away hopeful but confused. Some may have gone away knowing their need, believing, desiring, and trusting. This readiness helps to open the door for God to minister at that moment and for others as well as ourselves to have a felt experience of God's love. May it be so with our suffering sisters and brothers in Haiti in the aftermath of such a devastating earthquake at this time in our history.

Do I need, do I believe, do I desire, do I trust God to fulfill the Good New in me and through me? Especially in our work for Justice, either directly or systemically, do I have this attitude that the poor, the captives, the blind and oppressed, the victims of war and earthquake, poverty, human trafficking and others who are treated unjustly can experience the fulfillment of Scripture today and in the days to come? Trusting in God's promise, and walking in Faith, Hope and Love, may this be fulfilled, great or small, in some way, in our hearing. And upon seeing this, let us give thanks.

Jo-Anne Faillace, OP