Do you believe that you are supposed to be Christ in this world today? You're baptized in his name. You call yourself a Christian. You sign yourself with holy water and make the sign of the cross. Do you really believe that the Spirit of God is upon you?

Sometimes it's hard to conceive that. We can get ourselves into a baptismal inferiority complex: I'm not good enough to think that I can be Christ in this world. Only extraordinarily holy people-saints-can be like Christ. Thinking like that can lead to baptismal suicide-drowning in the waters of baptism without ever experiencing the power of the Resurrection. Paul doesn't mince any words this week when he tells the Corinthians, "You are Christ's body." He can say that because we have all been given of the one Spirit.

So, if you're baptized you have the Spirit of God, just like Jesus in today's Gospel. That Spirit of God sends us to bring good news to the poor, "to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free."

WOW! What a task. It sounds impossible. As a matter of fact, it is-if we tried to do it alone. But we don't have to. We can do all those things-and more because we are united with all the baptized in the one body of Christ, through one Spirit. How we work that out in each community is part of the discernment of the Spirit that takes place, discovering the best ways to use each person's talents and gifts. God's Spirit is given for the common good, and it is in the community of faith that each of us discovers the ways that God wants us to fulfill our baptismal call.

"He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." Jesus said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." - Lk 4:18b-19, 21