The Church often speaks of a "preferential option for the poor." The idea is that the poor-- in spirit and in resources-- should be the subject of our special concern and affection. OK, we say that a lot. Do we really mean it? Jesus certainly did. We see in today's Gospel (Lk 4: 14-22) that Jesus starts His ministry in Galilee by going to the synagogue and reading from the prophet Isaiah that: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has annointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor." Jesus is quoting Isaiah 61: 1-2. isn't it interesting that the first thing Jesus reads-- what he chooses to say as His first pronouncement-- is this passage from Isaiah? The first thing Jesus says he wants to do is bring glad tidings to the poor. Sure, Jesus will preach about other things-- about hypocrisy, about not judging others, about working for peace and justice, and about the Kingdom of Heaven. But the first thing-- the very first thing-- Jesus wants to say is that the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him because He has been annointed to bring glad tidings to the poor. Interesting, isn't it? He doesn't say he wants to make sure that free markets are operating so that distribution of assets will work efficiently. And He doesn't say that He wants to explain to the poor how they can lift themselves up by their own bootstraps, or how it really makes sense that there are a few folks (fewer than 1000) who control virtually-all of the world's wealth. No, He doesn't want to tell the poor that gross disparity in the distribution of economic resources is really just fine, because it leads to economic growth and long-term prosperity (pay no attention to the fact that the length of the term is not defined). He just wants to give the poor "glad tidings." So what are those " glad tidings"? The next lines give us a clue-- liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free and a year acceptable to the Lord. In other words, stop incarcerating so many people, provide health care to those who need it, free people from an economic system that fails to provide wages which support a reasonable life, and get people out from under unpayable debt (the last reference in Isaiah is to a year when debts are forgiven). If that is what jesus puts first, shouldn't we do the same? Do we? Do we atually work for a preferential option for the poor, or do we just say that we do?