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THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – January 27, 2013
The Book of Nehemiah 8:2-4, 5-6, 8-10
St. Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians 12:12-30
The holy Gospel according to Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21
Does the first reading resonate with you? Do you identify with the people? Have you ever been moved either to tears or to great exultation as the proclamation of the Scriptures washes over you? Such experiences ought to be the norm rather than the exception. Scriptures are the living word, after all. The Lord is present in the Word, just as Christ is present in the Eucharist and in the Assembly. That encounter ought to thrill and continue our conversion. That is what is happening to those men, women, and children old enough to understand that are assembled before Ezra, the priest. And it will challenge those in the crowd gathered around Jesus in Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry as he opens the scroll and reads from the Prophet Isaiah in today’s gospel.
Part of the intensity of experience for those assembled in the first reading rises out of their situation. As was the case with those in last Sunday’s first reading, these are the people newly restored to Jerusalem following that period of living in exile and slavery during the Babylonian Captivity. While in Babylon many had wandered from the Lord and gone after the gods of the Babylonians. Now they have returned to the holy city destroyed that is in ruins. The task before them is to rebuild. Ezra, standing on a special platform and holding the scroll high so that all the people could see it, proclaimed from The Law, The Torah, from daybreak until midday. I won’t even ask you how you think a reading of that length would go over today. But then we probably we are not starved for the Word as those people were. Or, we may not recognize that we are.
We tend to think of laws, even the Decalogue as repressive, curtailing our freedom. Believe it or not, that was not the primary reaction of the Jews to the Law. Hearing the Law proclaimed did give them an opportunity to examine their consciences and recognize how unfaithful to God they had been. Hence, they bowed down and wept as they felt sorrow for their sins and a resurgence of faith in the One who led their ancestors out of slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. They raised their hands high and shouted, Amen! Amen! Why? Because the reading of the law gave them an intense experience of the Lord’s presence in their midst. They were reminded that they were God’s people. Even thought they had been unfaithful, God had remained faithful to them and once again had led them out of slavery and brought them home to Jerusalem.
Imagine the power of Ezra’s reading and the fervor with which he proclaimed the reading to that assembly. The Spirit of God animated him and spoke through him and so touched the people in their vulnerability and strengthened them. God has acted. The people reacted and woke to belief. To be similarly moved, perhaps we have to come before the Word similarly vulnerable, conscious that we are sinners, and so be awakened to the experience of God in our midst and be strengthened and renewed.
Pardon an aside here. It is obvious that God gifted Ezra with the power to read the Word. Today we would say that God gifted Ezra with the charism to be a Reader or Lector. Notice, Ezra isn’t preaching. He isn’t breaking open the Word, which is what preaching is supposed to do. He is proclaiming the Law as it is written in the Torah. Sometimes I find listening to the proclamation of the Word at mass a grim experience. Some of those who stand up in the midst of the assembly and read from that platform designated for that purpose clearly do not have Ezra’s charism. There is no enthusiasm in the reading. Often words are mispronounced and the phrasing is pedestrian to poor. Sometimes it is clear that the reader does not understand the reading or is reading without having prepared it prior to the proclaiming of it.
Paul, in the second reading from his first Letter to the Corinthians, is urging us to recognize that everybody does not receive the same gift. There are different gifts but the same giver. Having a gift does not raise a person above those who do not have the gift. Rather, the charism is a call to share that gift in the midst of those other and differently gifted people.
Sensing an urge to take up a certain ministry is not a guarantee that that one has been so gifted. There needs to be a discernment process done through prayer and reflection by which it becomes clear to which ministry the Spirit calls a person. It is recognized that the Spirit is working in the person. Not everyone is called to be a Lector. Not everyone is called to Preach. Not everyone has the charism to be an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist. The same can be said regarding all the other ministries needed to be practiced in the parish. But God provides in abundance. In every parish there will be some called to each of the ministries so that all of the ministries can be exercised for the good of the parish. Recognizing and empowering those gifts results in a healthy parish. Where there is a ministerial need the Lord will provide so that the need can be met and the work of the Lord can be carried out.
The gospel for this Sunday is from Luke, as will be most of the gospel readings for this Liturgical Year. Today’s pericope comes from two different chapters, the first and the fourth, combined to orient us in the journey we are beginning with Luke. Notice that addresses the Gospel to Theophilus. Some say there was someone of significance by that name in Luke’s community, a wealthy person to whom Luke would address both his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. But most commentators take their cue from the name’s translation and see that both books are addressed to One Who Loves God, that is, to you and to me. Take your pick. I won’t even tell you which interpretation I prefer. Luke explains to the readers also that he is a thorough researcher, has read other accounts, talked to eyewitnesses, and now is ready to write his own sequence of the events that evidence our salvation.
We witness Jesus’ return. From where? From the period of temptations in the desert. Like his ancestors Jesus has experienced a period of formation in the desert, a period of temptations to go against God’s will for him and to build up a kingdom of wealth and power for himself. Having triumphed in that conflict, now the Spirit who led him into the desert now leads him back to Galilee where his reputation is swelling rapidly among the people who marvel at his words and his deeds. Then he comes to Nazareth, the town where he grew up, and he goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath and in the midst of these people who have known him from his childhood, he reads to them from the prophet Isaiah. This is the link to the first read. In Jesus’ proclamation, Isaiah speaks as one animated by and anointed in the Spirit of the Lord, as one sent to bring good news to the poor, to set captives free, to restore sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. When Jesus finishes the reading, he closes the scroll and says to all in his hearing, Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing. This is another Epiphany moment. The reading is a composite sketch of Jesus’ ministry. All of those aspects are meant to remind the people of God’s undying and unconditional love for them. Jesus brings God’s love to the little ones, to the off scouring of society, so that they might know their favor with God and that they are destined to live with God forever. The hungry will be fed. The little ones and the oppressed will be lifted up and freed. Wars will end.
Jesus says that all this will happen in, with, and through him, beginning today. That’s thrilling, isn’t it?
What is a thumbnail sketch of Jesus’ ministry is also an outline of the ministry of the Church. The work Jesus begins is not finished yet. There are still the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed. There are still those who need to be convinced they are people of worth regardless of their situation. Jesus’ primary focus is always on those insignificant members of society and those deemed sinners or unclean, those to be shunned. The Church is healthiest and most faithful to Jesus’ ministry when it is clear that these same classes are of primary concern for the Church. The Gospel is most strongly proclaimed when it is clear that the Church is about forgiving, restoring, and welcoming home again. Those in the Church must work tirelessly for the liberty and justice of all people and to bring them peace.
Just as the Spirit led Jesus and inspired his ministry, so does the Spirit move in the Church today inspiring members to take up those various responsibilities, those aspects of the Cross, so that Jesus’ ministry can continue. What is necessary is prayer and discernment to recognize the Spirit’s movement and then to allow the Spirit to move so that there will be the courage to act. Of course the Church must support those who follow the Spirit’s lead, even if they seem to be moving into new and uncharted territories, even if walls of convention are threatened.
The Church gathers for the Liturgy of the Word. Its Spirit-inspired proclamation touches the hearers’ hearts. The Spirit-inspired preaching will nourish those gathered and transition them to the Liturgy of the Eucharist where the Sacrament will transform them as they celebrate and share in the meal. Then they will be sent to do what Jesus did, proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
The time of fulfillment is now.
Sincerely,
Didymus