THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
27 JANUARY 2019
About
450 years before the birth of Christ, King Artaxerxes of Persia gave his Jewish
cupbearer, Nehemiah, permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem. This permission to return from
fifty years of Exile brought joy to his people.
But, that joy was short lived when those who had chosen to return
finally completed their journey. They
found their beloved city in complete ruins.
If any structures remained, squatters had moved in. So Nehemiah directs the priest Ezra to gather
the people. With nothing else to give
them hope, Ezra reads the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) to the
people to inform them that God loves them.
The people had lost this most basic element of their identity. God had chosen them to be his people, a
reality most of them had forgotten. That
is why Ezra’s reading from God’s Word brought so much joy. Knowing their identity and God’s presence in
their difficult task, they celebrate with a festive meal and realize that
rejoicing in the Lord must be their strength.
Over four
centuries later, Jesus returns to his hometown, goes to the synagogue, and
reads from the Prophet Isaiah. Unlike
the people of Nehemiah’s time, the people of Nazareth are very familiar with
this passage and had heard it often with hope for the future. Just as Ezra and his scribes had helped their
people to understand the words of the Torah, Jesus explains the passage by
announcing: “today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” He identifies himself as the one sent to
bring glad tidings to the poor, 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.
Saint Luke
addresses his Gospel to Theophilus, a Greek word meaning one loved by God. In
other words, he is addressing his Gospel to each of us, because we are loved by
God. Saint Luke stresses the working of
the Holy Spirit in the person of Jesus Christ.
It was through the Holy Spirit that the eternal Word was made flesh in
the womb of the Virgin. The Holy Spirit
had driven Jesus into the desert for forty days to realize his vocation. It was the Holy Spirit who appeared as a dove
when Jesus emerged from his baptism in the Jordan River. Now, it is the Holy Spirit who leads Jesus to
his hometown to make this remarkable announcement.
In writing
to the Church in Corinth, Saint Paul reminds us of what it means to be loved by
God. When we passed through the waters
of Baptism, we were incorporated into his Body.
That is our identity. The mission
of Jesus Christ can be continued in our midst today when we take our identity
in Christ seriously. As members of
Christ’s body, each of us has been given different gifts. Jesus is challenging us to put those gifts at
the service of the Church and to trust that the Holy Spirit will give us the
courage to use those gifts to make his presence in our world a more visible
reality. We hear him speak to us every Sunday,
and he feeds us with the finest banquet – his real presence in the
Eucharist.
Like Ezra
and the scribes who helped their people understand the importance of God’s
Word, we are also given tools to better understand our roles today. That is why we are encouraging everyone to
read the book Why I Am Catholic and you
should be too. That is why we
encourage everyone to make a retreat.
The women are participating in their retreat this weekend. There are still openings for the men’s
retreat next weekend. An important part
of the Strategic Five Year Plan will involve new ways to grow in our
faith. The Word of God is addressed to
us now, and the Holy Spirit will continue to guide us as explore what it means
for us to be chosen through Baptism to be people loved by God and called to
rejoice that God is the source of our joy and hope. No matter what difficulties we may be
experiencing in our lives or in our Church, the Lord is present and gives us
hope and direction.
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