The Old Testament Books of Ezra and Nehemiah chronicle the zeal of those who had made a new beginning in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. As such, they reflect the enthusiasm and commitment of every radical reform. At the heart of this reform was a scrupulous attention to the Law of Moses, whose prescriptions would become the foundation of a new beginning for God’s people. The Book of Nehemiah celebrates the rapt attention with which the people committed themselves to a faithful observation of the Law.
At this time of the year, when New Year’s resolutions begin to fade, the undoubted fervour of this radical reform stands as a cautionary tale. Any new beginning, be it personal or corporate, must be rooted in something deeper than the fragility of our sinful humanity. We can begin with the best of intentions, but the disappointed hopes of repeated failure confront us with our poverty. St Paul reflected such poverty in his Letter to the Romans. “For though the will to do what is good is in me, the power to do it is not: the good thing that I intend to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want is what I do.”
In many ways the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah followed a similar pattern. The enthusiasm of the early days ossified into the empty observance that Jesus denounced in the Scribes and Pharisees of his day.
The new beginning proclaimed in Jesus redeemed us from this vicious circle of good intentions undermined by sinful relapse.
“Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee.” The power of the Spirit runs as a thread through the Gospel of Luke and its continuation in the Acts of the Apostles. A new beginning, for us, as for Jesus, is only assured through the surrender of ourselves to the Holy Spirit. “Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written: the Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor.”
Jesus described this outpouring of the Spirit as a proclamation of the Lord’s Jubilee of favour, the Mercy at the heart of the current Jubilee Year. It is significant that Jesus described works of mercy (good news to the poor, sight to the blind, liberty to captives) as evidence of the Spirit entrusted to him. Through that same Spirit may we become the heralds of his mercy.
This article first appeared in the January 22 2016 issue of The Catholic Herald. To download the entire issue for free with our new app, go here
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