Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
Readings: Neh 8: 2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
1 Cor 12: 12-30
Lk. 1: 1-4; 4: 14-21
On the first day of the seventh month, the priest Ezra reads from the book of the Law of Moses, in the presence of the people from early morning until midday. This is the beginning of the restoration of their liturgy after returning from captivity in Babylon for 70 years. The people wept on hearing the Law, perhaps due to its severity, or because they had been living outside the Law for so long? Perhaps they were tears of repentance? We are not told why. But Ezra and the Levites giving instruction tell them not to weep, that this day is holy to the Lord. This is good news for them. They must celebrate, for “the joy of the Lord is your strength”. The Levites explain the meaning of the texts to the people. They read in the Law that in the seventh month they must celebrate the feast of booths or tabernacles, remembering the times when the Israelites had to dwell in tents in the desert after they departed from Egypt. And so they go and make booths to dwell in for seven days as prescribed by the Law. They are celebrating, remembering their origins as a people, formed into a covenant with God. A restoration of the liturgy in Jerusalem is signifying a restoration of the Covenant, so that they may live and celebrate as God’s People following their return from exile. A new life is beginning for them.
Jesus returns to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit”. He goes to Nazareth, his hometown. On the Sabbath he goes to the synagogue, as was his custom from childhood. He stands to read and is given the book of the prophet Isaiah. The passage he chooses is a Messianic text: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” Jesus explains the text to the people saying that “today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”, He is implying that He is the Messiah they are expecting. And the “today” is signifying a new beginning with good news, good news to the poor who are the little ones of God. They wonder at the gracious words proceeding from his mouth. But they do not realize the full implications of what He is telling them. A new beginning is about to unfold once again. The scene occurs on a Sabbath, which is the original sign of the Covenant, a sign which always remained. Jesus is about to being His Work of establishing a new and everlasting Covenant, in His very Person as a new Mediator, a new Moses, the New Day that Abraham saw and rejoiced in. The healings, the release of captives, the new freedom are all fulfilled in Jesus and His Church, which St Paul calls the Body of Christ. The People of God are being established into a new Communion, a Oneness which is the Church. And most especially is this unity of the One Body of Christ formed through the Power of God, the Power of the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Eucharist. In a theology course he gave in Rio de Janeiro in 1990, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as he was then, put this very succinctly when he said: “The formula ‘The Church is the Body of Christ” thus states that the Eucharist, in which the Lord gives us His Body and makes us one body, forever remains the place where the Church is generated, where the Lord Himself never ceases to found her anew; in the Eucharist the Church is most compactly herself – in all places, yet one only, just as He is one only.”
God is One, and He calls all into a share of His Oneness, in His Son through the power of His Holy Spirit. God is the one and only source of Divine Revelation. But from this one source flow two streams, that of the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, and that of a Sacred Tradition comprising of the teachings of the Church, the Councils, the Saints, although only the Scriptures possess the charism of ‘Divine Inspiration’. In order then to enter more profoundly into the oneness of God, as we are called, I suggest the following:
Pray each day to the Holy Spirit for His guidance on our lives. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. He tends to be the most forgotten Person of the Holy Trinity, yet the Liturgy repeatedly invokes His assistance. He is the Lord, the Giver of Life, the Giver of this New Life which is of the very essence of the Church and why we can call the Church ‘Holy’ despite the sinfulness of its members, our sinfulness. The Church is anaemic right now. But we must not give up hope or fall into despair. Rather, pray each day for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church which is the Family of God. Pray for the conversion of poor sinners everywhere. Pray for our own conversion.
Secondly, read and meditate on the Holy Scriptures each day. Praying and meditating on God’s Word, which the Scriptures are, enables us to live lives rooted in His Covenant with Him. This prepares us to receive His Body in the Holy Eucharist with a strong and lively faith. It enables us to fulfil our own personal role in serving one another with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Thirdly, ask for the assistance and intercession of Our Lady. The prayers of Mary are powerful because she is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit and icon of the Church. She knows clearly the path we should follow and we need to become more docile as her children. Learn from the saints as they all sought to imitate her virtues.
We always have areas in our lives in need of conversion. But, through the Mercy of God we have these three aids and others too, the Sacrament of Reconciliation certainly, to enable us to grow, to grow more completely in union with God and with one another. During this week we are praying especially for the unity of all Christians. The Body of Christ consists of many members. One suffering member means we all suffer. The divisions among Christians are a great tragedy. In hope we pray for this unity to come about so that the Church may once again reflect the unity of One Body in Christ, the Glory of God.
Dom Brian Gerard Kelly