March 28, 2022

Here is snippet from Amor Towles excellent new novel, The Lincoln Highway. 

A nun at juvenile detention center says, “Boys, in your time you shall do wrong unto others and others shall do wrong unto you. And these opposing wrongs will become your chains. The wrongs you have done unto others will be bound to you in the form of guilt, and the wrongs that others have done unto you in the form of indignation. Jesus Christ our Savior is there to free you from both. To free you from guilt through (His) atonement, and to free you from indignation through (His) forgiveness.”

When Jesus read from Isaiah in the synagogue, He announced Himself as the Messiah. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” (Luke 4:18)

As Charles Wesley’s great hymn says, “My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed Thee.”

“Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Fourth Sunday in Advent – BCP)