God reveals: love as annointing in the Spirit

WORD 2day: Thursday after Epiphany

January 9, 2025 - 1 John 4:19 - 5:4; Luke 4: 14-22

The Word gives us a series of reasons to love: because God loves us; because anyone who says he or she loves God has to; because whoever believes in Jesus has to; because every one who is begotten by God has to; and finally Jesus summarises it, because we have been annointed with the Spirit. The sign, that we are people begotten by the Father, that we are people who accept and proclaim Jesus as the Lord, that we are people filled with the Spirit, is that we love one another. Isn't this what Jesus told us elsewhere: by this they will know that you are my disciples, by the the love that you have for one another (cf. 13: 35). 

Jesus reveals himself as a person filled with the Spirit, and the people notice it. The people marvelled at it. They were astonished by it. But for Jesus it was no matter of marvel or astonishment, it was his identity. He declared it with such simplicity and went about doing or living what he declared. He went about doing good, proclaiming liberty to the captives, new sight to the blind, freedom to the downtrodden, the year of Lord's favour to all! These became his mission because of his identity as the person filled with the Spirit - the identity of one who loved every one. 

There are two invitations presented to us in the Word today: to realise that we are people annointed with the Spirit, and to convince ourselves that love is an annointing in the Spirit.