Liberation

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. - Luke 4:18-19

These are the words of Jesus, describing his mission on earth. In this first week of Advent we see Jesus at work on the margins of society, bringing good news to the outcasts, freedom to the addicts, affirmation for the silenced.

Archbishop Oscar Romero died for his faith. He was assassinated by those in power while he was serving communion during a church service, all because he sought to participate in Jesus’s work amongst the oppressed and marginalized. Today, listen to his words not long before he was killed, and ask God how you might join him in Jesus’s work of liberation.

Liberation is a biblical word that expresses the whole work of the Lord in saving us from sin. Liberation does not mean only redemption after death, so that people should just conform to the system while they are alive. No, liberation is redemption that is already beginning on this earth... liberation means redemption that seeks to free people from every form of slavery. Slavery is illiteracy; slavery is hunger, not having money to buy food; slavery is being homeless, not having a place to live...when the church preaches that Christ came to redeem us and that because of that redemption no form of slavery should exist on earth, the church is not preaching subversion or politics or communism. The church is preaching the true redemption of Christ.

- Archbishop Oscar Romero