Everyone who believes God’s Word is called to pass on the Good News. Like many who have gone before us, including the prophet Isaiah and the apostles Peter and Paul, we may not feel up to the task. But God helps us every day.

(This is the last Sunday before Lent, which is celebrated as Temperance Sunday.)

We gather this first Sunday in February as people love by God, people called to pass on the love we have received. The love God has put into the world will never fail, but will last as long as humanity lasts. We praise God for the gifts lavished on us.

The public launch of the Lord’s ministry in the synagogue in Nazara is described in today’s Gospel, which contains the very first lines of St Luke’s Gospel: the proclamation of God’s word, demonstrated in Nehemiah (First Reading), coming to perfection in the Word made Flesh.