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http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012713.cfm



Beginning the cycle of readings for Year C from Luke's gospel, the lectionary has wisely included the unique introduction [1:1-4] before moving to the start of Jesus' mission activities in 4:14 (by-passing the infancy narratives).

The opening sentence is a goldmine for commentators. It follows a classical Greek structure and contains information we could well keep in mind as we go through the gospel this year.

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events
that have been fulfilled among us,
just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning
and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,
I too have decided,
after investigating everything accurately anew,
to write it down in an orderly sequence for you,
most excellent Theophilus, 
so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received. 

Luke's opening words provide some indication as to what type of narrative this is: he tells us he is not an eye-witness, but has thoroughly researched what has been handed down. Among his sources we would list Mark's gospel and the "Q" document which has not survived. 

His main source is the living tradition, "just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed down to us". We might say that the eyewitnesses were the apostles and others who lived in the company of Jesus, while the ministers of the word were those who were sent out from the early communities to spread the gospel to other towns. We read of this activity in the Acts of the Apostles, the other half of Luke's work.

In the second part of this introductory sentence, Luke declares that he is writing a private account for Theophilus. This has led some commentators to compare it with Mark's opening sentence: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God", from which they conclude that Luke did not intend his account as an official text to be used in worship assemblies.(1) Others don't accept this sharp distinction. His purpose is to write an  "orderly sequence". Clearly this does not refer to more accurate chronological order, but to a clearer logical order such as would be useful in a teaching text whether for catechumens or in weekly assemblies.

In fact today's reading contains an example of Luke's readiness to re-arrange his material for his logical purpose. He takes an event that seems correctly situated in chapter 6 of Mark's gospel, where Jesus goes back to Nazareth and addresses his own townsfolk in the synagogue, and brings it forward as an introduction at the start of Jesus' missionary activities. 

To encapsulate that mission Luke quotes from Isaiah, but even then he does not merely take a few lines as they stand; he edits the passage to suit his own purposes. As the following layout shows, one line from the text as found in Is 61 is omitted, one line from chapter 58 inserted, and even a new line added.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me 
to bring glad tidings to the poor
to bind up the brokenhearted. [Omitted from Is. 61:1]
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives (2)
and recovery of sight to the blind, [Added by Luke.]
to let the oppressed go free, [Inserted from Is 58:6]
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. 

Faced with editing work of this kind it is reasonable to conclude that Luke intended the resulting formula to provide an accurate summary of the mission of Jesus, his program or charter, something similar to the President's inaugural address in which he declares what he intends to achieve in his next term of office. It could be used today as a mantra to accompany our meditation.

It is common to think that "the poor" means "the afflicted" in general, all those who are having a hard time, but Luke seems to reject that broad interpretation by cutting out the reference to the broken-hearted in the next line. We have to ask why would he do this, unless it is to put a harder edge on the term "the poor". According to one commentator (Robert K. Karris O.F.M. in the New Jerome Bibilical Commentary), 'Luke omits those elements which would spiritualize the text or narrow its focus on "true" Israel.' Thus, he omits Is 61:1c: "to heal the broken-hearted". He ends his citation from Is 61 before there is mention of  "a year of vindication, to console those who mourn." And he adds a line from chap. 58 "to let the oppressed go free". Karris shows that in Luke's gospel the oppressed refers to those who are burdened by debt, just as the captives (above) are not prisoners of war or people oppressed by a foreign occupying force, but those in the debtors prison. It is not only in the modern age that money is the root of all evil.

Karris continues: 'The gift of the Spirit [...] is for the benefit of those who are economically, physically and socially unfortunate.'

If this is the case, Luke is not setting out a general program of spiritual comfort. He is setting out a hard-edged social program. It will be interesting to go through the gospel looking for indications that Jesus is concerned with actually lifting the burdens of real oppression as the poor and underprivileged experience them. The 'acceptable year' refers to the Year of Jubilee in which debts were cancelled and those in debtors prisons were supposed to be set free, according to the ideal embodied in the Law.  In saying 
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”
  Jesus declared his intention of making every year a jubilee year.

It is easy to list dozens of situations of people suffering under unbelievable oppression in our own countries, from those forced out of their homes for failure to pay rent, or for defaulting on loans or time-payments on goods bought, through to refugees imprisoned in detention centres without hope. This might be an occasion for sharing our experiences.


(1) See, for example, R. H. Fuller: http://liturgy.slu.edu/3OrdC012713/theword.html

(2) If we read 'Liberty to captives' as 'pardon to prisoners' we may get a different feel for what is meant. It is hard to find a translation entirely to one's liking. In this instance 'release or deliverance to captives', makes one think of people captured in war, or even today, of hostages. Looking around I came across the recent Message translation, which has: 'pardon to prisoners', bringing the focus closer to home. The Message translation is an attempt to put the gospels into modern idiom, to avoid some of the artificiality of words and phrases that are simply unfamiliar. See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_(Bible): The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language was created by Eugene H. Peterson and published in segments from 1993 to 2002 It is an idiomatic translation of the original languages of the Bible.