The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, January 23, 2022, as the third Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “Sing a new song to the Lord! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Truth and beauty surround him, he lives in holiness and glory. Amen.”
The authority of the word of God is very much at the center of our readings this day. In the first reading (Nehemiah 8: 2-6. 8-10), the priest Ezra, a scribe well versed in the law of Moses, travels from exile in Babylon to teach God’s law to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have been very discouraged because of the hardships they encounter after their return from exile. Their initial enthusiasm has been dampened by the harsh realities they meet on the ground and Ezra assembles them and reads to them the law of the Lord, reassuring them that God is not indifferent to their hardships. With that, the people joyfully renew their covenant with God, who will not punish them on account of their numerous transgressions.
In the second reading (1 Corinthians 12: 12-30), Saint Paul tells his converts of Corinth that Christ came to call all people to be united in faith and in love. Even though we are many, we form one body in Christ just as the many parts of the same body form one unity. Our sense of unity must strengthen the unity of the Christian community.
In the Gospel (Luke 1: 1-4. 4: 14-21), Saint Luke presents us Jesus about to begin his Galilean ministry guided by the power of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit is a favourite theme in Saint Luke’s Gospel and in his Acts of the Apostles. Jesus opens his ministry with the ‘Good News to the poor’ but unfortunately his people of Nazareth, ‘the lost sheep of the House of Israel’ (Mt 15:24), totally reject it. This rejection, however, makes our Lord turn his attention to the universe at large, with the likes of Saint Paul carrying his message of salvation to the Gentile world. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to receive God’s word of salvation and rejoice in it.
First reading: Nehemiah 8: 2-6. 8-10.
Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, consisting of men, women, and children old enough to understand. This was the first day of the seventh month. On the square before the Water Gate, in the presence of the men and women, and children old enough to understand, he read from the book from early morning till noon; all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. Ezra, the scribe, stood on a wooden dais erected for the purpose. In full view of all the people – since he stood higher than all the people – Ezra opened the book; and when he opened it all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people raised their hands and answered, ‘Amen! Amen!’; then they bowed down and, face to the ground, prostrated themselves before the Lord. And Ezra read from the Law of God, translating and giving the sense, so that the people understood what was read. Then Nehemiah – His Excellency – and Ezra, priest and scribe (and the Levites who were instructing the people) said to all the people, ‘This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not be mournful, do not weep.’ For the people were all in tears as they listened to the words of the Law. He then said, ‘Go, eat the fat, drink the sweet wine, and send a portion to the man who has nothing prepared ready. For this day is sacred to our Lord. Do not be sad: the joy of the Lord is your stronghold.
Comment
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are closely related to each other. The two main personalities, Ezra and Nehemiah, work together for the religious and civil reconstruction of Judah when it formed part of the Persian empire. King Cyrus of Persia authorized the return to Jerusalem of the exiles and the new arrivals soon began to rebuild the temple. That is when Nehemiah, an official at the court of the king of Persia, also received authorization from his king to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city. In the beginning of the memoirs of Nehemiah, we see how the Lord uses some people to stir Nehemiah to ask the king permission to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the Holy City and restore it to its former glory. Nehemiah is involved in the physical reconstruction of the Holy City. He builds the wall, reorganizes the social and political life of Judah. Ezra, for his part, brings in the Law and imposes it on the people.
From the time of Solomon up to the fall of Jerusalem, religious activity centered on the temple liturgy. From the exile onwards it was built around the Law by means of the institution of the synagogue. Since many of the returnees could not go up to Jerusalem to worship in the temple, they often met in private houses or in the open air to listen to the reading of legal and prophetical texts.
The passage of our meditation comes from the core of the book of Nehemiah. It involves the proclamation of the Law by Ezra and the people’s confession of their sins and their promise to keep the Law. The reading and explanation of the Law do not take place inside the temple: the people are gathered around the stage specially set up in front of that building.
When the people hear the commandments of the Law read out, they weep because they have not been keeping some of them and they are afraid that God will punish them on that account. But Ezra and the Levites (the teachers of the Law) make them see that God is giving them a chance to start all over again. That is why that day is called ‘holy’. The occasion marks a critical moment in the history of God’s people. It is a special renewal of their covenant with God and as such resembles the ceremony when the covenant was first made with Moses as mediator. The people are assembled as for an act of worship, recognizing that they are about to hear God’s word. They listen to Ezra and his explanation and mark their acceptance of it.
What does this passage say to me as a Christian living in the city of Douala today? As I listen to this reading, I am reminded of the importance of always taking time off to listen to God’s word together with the other members of Christ’s lay faithful in Church. I am also reminded of the importance of inviting the Holy Spirit to help me whenever I read God’s word in Sacred Scripture. When a word or verse touches me or holds my attention, I stay on it and invite the Holy Spirit to enlighten me and help me to understand the deep truths in it. As someone has so beautifully put it, when we read God’s word, God talks to us; when we pray, we talk to God. Lord, open my ears to hear and understand your word when it is proclaimed to me in the assembly of your people and, in turn, teach me to pray using your word from your Holy Book so I can learn to talk to you in prayers. Amen.
Second Reading: 1 Cor. 12: 12-30.
Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptized, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink. Nor is the body to be identified with any one of its many parts. If the foot were to say, ‘I am not a hand and so I do not belong to the body,’ would that mean that it stopped being part of the body? If the ear were to say, ‘I am not an eye, and so I do not belong to the body,’ would that mean that it is not a part of the body? If your whole body was just one eye, how would you hear anything? If it was just one ear, how would you smell anything? Instead of that, God put all the separate parts into the body on purpose. If all the parts were the same, how could it be a body? As it is, the parts are many but the body is one. The eye cannot say to the hand ‘I do not need you,’ nor can the head say to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’ What is more, it is precisely the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest which are the indispensable ones; and it is the least honourable parts of the body that we clothe with the greatest care. So our more improper parts get decorated in a way that our more proper parts do not need. God has arranged the body so that more dignity is given to the parts which are without it, and so that there may not be disagreements inside the body, but that each part may be equally concerned for all the others. If one part is hurt, all parts are hurt with it. If one part is given special honour, all parts enjoy it. Now you together are Christ’s body, but each of you is a different part of it. In the Church, God has given the first place to apostles, the second to prophets, the third to teachers; after them, miracles, and after them the gift of healing; helpers, good leaders, those with many languages. Are all of them apostles, or all of them prophets, or all of them teachers? Do they all have the gift of miracles, or all have the gift of healing? Do all speak strange languages, and all interpret them?
Comment
Shortly before the passage of this day’s reflection, Saint Paul has been talking to his converts of Corinth about the need for them to show more reverence for the Blessed Eucharist. Many of them are apparently ill and some have even died because of their irreverence towards the Eucharist. He implies that many of them are unruly and guilty of many abuses, and serious ones at that.
In this day’s passage, Saint Paul takes up a new theme – the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were being used wrongly in the Corinthian community. He begins by explaining what these gifts are and how closely connected they are to the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ.
He identifies the Church with Christ, the Holy Spirit being its main life line. Just as the body and head are one man, so also is Christ and the Church. As Saint Augustine puts it: “All this Church, made up of the assembly of the faithful – for all the faithful are members of Christ – has Christ as its head, governing his body from heaven. And although his head is located out of sight of the body, he is, however, joined to it by love” (Saint Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 56, 1).
The Church’s unity is assured by the Holy Spirit who assembles the faithful into a society and empowers them to carry out God’s work on earth. The same Holy Spirit makes us members of Christ’s body. In our baptism, the Spirit of Christ moulds us into one family. It is therefore important to know that the Holy Spirit continues to act in the Church and to give to all its members, irrespective of social position, the same basic dignity and the same importance.
Saint Paul develops this thinking by personifying all the members of the human body, imagining the nobler members looking down on the lesser one. This serves to reaffirm the truth that the members have to take care of one another since each member has its distinctive part to play in the functioning of the whole body. He shows that the parts of the body, which seem least attractive, are often the most valuable. The parts depend on one another in much the same way as Christians form a family whose members depend on one another.
Saint Paul concludes this description of the different parts of the body by applying it to the Church, where there are a variety of functions serving the same God. There are prophets, apostles, bishops, priests, catechists and laity but all having the obligation to proclaim Christ’s message to the world. We cannot do it on our own; we need the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Father of light, you continually renew our lives by fresh infusions of the Holy Spirit. We praise you for all your gifts and ask for the full revelation of your will; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel: Luke 1: 1-4; 4: 14-21.
Seeing that many others have undertaken to draw up accounts of the events that have taken place among us, exactly as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, I in my turn, after carefully going over the whole story from the beginning to the end, have decided to write an ordered account for you, Theophilus, so that your Excellency may learn how well founded the teaching is that you have received. Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him. He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written: The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’
Comment
In today’s Gospel, Jesus returns to Nazareth where he was brought up, and that is why he is often called Jesus of Nazareth. Before returning home, he has been through a series of events. John baptizes him and the Spirit of the Lord descends on him and God calls him “my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3: 17). Then for forty days and forty nights thereafter, the Spirit leads him in the wilderness where the devil tempts him (Lk 4: 1-13). He comes out victorious from the encounter with the devil and then decides to start his public ministry, and quite appropriately so in his native village, Galilee.
His reputation has gone ahead of him and when he goes to the synagogue, as he usually does, he is invited to preach. He unrolls the scroll and finds the passage of Isaiah which beautifully summarizes his mission on earth: he has come to announce the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to those in captivity, give sight to the blind, set the downtrodden free and proclaim the Lord’s year of favour – this was a time when all debts were cancelled and all property returned to the rightful owners (Lev 25: 8-55). .
In this passage, Jesus gives a summary of what he is and what his work is to be. He is the ‘anointed’ of the Spirit; he is the suffering servant and the beloved son of the Father who is to bring the good news to the poor, set the captives free, give sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed. These are all the signs of the messianic age and they all refer to “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” as Pontius Pilate would later call him, very much to the chagrin of the Jewish authorities of Jerusalem (John 19: 19).
By telling his townspeople that the scripture has been fulfilled in their presence, Jesus identifies himself as the fulfillment of ancient prophecy. It is about him that the prophets of old had spoken. His village people are first astonished at the great wisdom in his preaching. They admire him but when he speaks of his messianic mission, they quickly reject him. They suddenly remember he is just a mere son of a poor carpenter and his wife, Joseph and Mary, their own neighbours. When Jesus reminds them that a prophet is never accepted in his own town, they become so enraged that they want to throw him down the cliff of a hill, but he escapes and never again returns to his village.
By chasing away Jesus from their village as a mere carpenter, who is playing the prophet, the people of Nazareth miss the opportunity to benefit from the good news Christ brings to humanity. The Church has continued to proclaim the good news of Christ’s salvation to the world. In this way, she continues Christ’s words to his apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28: 19-20).
We are the Church and are therefore obliged, in our own way too, to preach the truths of the faith. For this, we need the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of you love. Amen.
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