Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings from the prophet Isaiah, from Saint Paul, and from the Gospel of Luke come together in a beautiful harmony, all drawing our attention to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. They reveal who He is, what He gives, and what He calls us to become. The thread that ties them all together is this: Jesus is our peace, our joy, and he has entrusted to us a mission. Everything is seen in light of Him.
Let us begin with the joyful vision of Isaiah. “Rejoice with Jerusalem… all you who love her!” This is no ordinary rejoicing. Isaiah is speaking to a people who have suffered, who have mourned, who have experienced exile and desolation, but who have grown to love their fellow countrymen and their lush and prosperous land.
On my way here to Canada in June, a lovely woman from Jerusalem sat beside me on the plane. We got into a conversation about the war between Israel and Iran. I asked her if she was heading to Canada seeking safety, and it resulted that her husband and daughter were already waiting for her. She told me that her brothers and sisters chose to remain in Tel Aviv, even though the bombs were falling each night, and there was no real shelter from all the danger. No basements. She explained how homes there are very simple in their middle-eastern architecture and construction. I asked why they chose to stay and she said, “Because we love Jerusalem. It is our life. Our culture. It is unique in the world.” We too ought to love Jerusalem in this way, yet with a biblical perspective. We ought to love the New Jerusalem, the Church, the Israel of God with a tremendous love. In it and through it does God fulfill his promise with all of humanity.
This promise is fulfilled in Jesus. He is the comfort of Jerusalem, the peace of God made flesh, the divine tenderness extended to all the earth. In Him, the true and lasting comfort of God reaches us—not from a distance, but personally, intimately, as a mother comforts her child. We do not follow a cold or distant deity. We follow the One who calls Himself the Bridegroom, the Good Shepherd, the one who sends His followers not as warriors, but as lambs among wolves, bringing peace. So what, then, should be placed before our spiritual attention today?
First, we fix our gaze on Christ, the source of all joy and comfort. Like the people of Jerusalem, we may carry wounds, losses, griefs. But the Lord does not leave us in exile. He comes close. In His presence, hearts rejoice and bodies flourish like the grass. So we must open ourselves to that presence, through prayer, through the sacraments, through His Word.
Second, we must be rooted in the Cross. We live in a world that wants resurrection without crucifixion, glory without sacrifice. But Paul reminds us in today’s second reading that only the Cross makes us a new creation. Our conversion must be deep, not superficial. Our Christian identity must flow from this dying to self and rising in Christ.
Finally, we must live our mission joyfully. Every Christian is sent. We are not meant to remain passive. Like the seventy-two, we go before Christ—into our homes, workplaces, neighbourhoods—bringing peace, bearing witness, proclaiming with our lives that “the Kingdom of God is at hand.” And we must remember: our joy is not in how much we accomplish, but in the knowledge that we are His.
So today, as the psalmist says, “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy!” Not with fear, not with shame, not with anxiety about success—but with joy. Because in Jesus, God has drawn near. In the Cross, He has made us new. And in the power of His name, we are sent—joyful, peaceful, and full of hope.
Amen.
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