THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME . ON THIS ACCOUNT HE HAS ANOINTED ME AND SENT ME TO PREACH TO THE POOR, TO HEAL THOSE WHOSE HEART IS CRUSHED. One of the recurrent issues that arises upon contact with Jesus is that of establishing his identity. The problem he poses to us today is the same as that which confronted his contemporaries. We have the great advantage, to be sure, of the witness of the Gospels which did not come into existence until a generation or more after his Ascension. In addition we possess the many writings of the holy Fathers, men inspired by the Holy Spirit and gifted with the graces of the Spirit, enlightened by mystical knowledge received through contemplative prayer. During his life time, however, our Lord himself was keenly conscious of the fact that people could not decide just what to make of him. That he was a superior person, that he had extraordinary powers and was endowed with special gifts and force of character was evident.

What was less clear is just what these endowments meant in terms of his person. Just who is he? Where does he really come from? From the beginning of his existence this issue was raised. At the Annunciation the angel told Mary that "you will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus. He shall be great and will be called Son of the Most High (Luke 1: 31, 32)." If the implications of this statement are clear to us who are Catholics today, it is still a matter of speculation as to just how Mary understood them at the time. Even those of us who believe she knew Jesus was truly God find it difficult to ascertain just how she would have expressed her faith to herself, since she certainly believed God is one, and the concept of the Trinity had not as yet been worked out. The Lord himself after some time in the public ministry, knowing the mystery surrounding his person, asked his chosen apostles one day: "Who do men say I am?" Peter identified him in terms that recall those of the angel's salutation to Mary: "You are the anointed , the Son of the living God. (Matthew 16: 16)" Jesus affirmed the truth of this witness and declared that such recognition of his true identity is a gift from God, not the deduction of a merely human reasoning.

In today's Gospel Jesus seeks to make himself known to his townspeople. The means he chooses to bring this about are indicative, it seems to me, of how he came to realize more explicitly his own identity. He cites the inspired words of the prophet Isaiah and applies them to himself and his mission. It would appear that as he grew in age and wisdom before God and men he came to understand more fully, with a more precise and conscious knowledge, the significance of the intimate awareness he had from his earliest years of belonging to the Father and being one with him. He achieved this more developed consciousness through his contemplative prayer first of all; this experiential knowledge was further specified and concretized by his meditation of the Law and the Prophets. If Jesus sought to impart a true conception of his identity to his own neighbors and villagers, it was though interpreting his actions and words by means of the text from the prophet that was known to the people of the synagogue. Significantly, just as he was to point out that Peter's recognition of his identity was the gift of God, so here, he identities himself as the one on whom the Spirit has rested. This union with the Spirit of God, he explains here, is the basis of his other gifts and powers and accounts for the special mission given him by the Father. The specific charge for which Jesus has been sent into the world can be carried through only by the One on whom the Spirit of God rests. That Spirit's presence identifies him as the one suited to carry out the Father's plan. Only those who are moved by the same Spirit can know him for who he truly is. Recognition of Jesus as truly Son of God and equal in all things to the Father is the gift of the Spirit.""for the word of the Spirit sounds silently in the ear of the heart (Moralia 5: 50 PL 75 : 706)." To hear it is to receive the saving knowledge of Jesus as Lord and our Savior.

Abbot John Eudes Bamberger

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