3rd Sunday In Ordinary Time – Year C
Nehemiah 8: 2 – 4, 5 – 6, 8 – 10
2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.
3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.
4 And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden pulpit which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithi’ah, Shema, Anai’ah, Uri’ah, Hilki’ah, and Ma-asei’ah on his right hand; and Pedai’ah, Mish’a-el, Malchi’jah, Hashum, Hash-bad’danah, Zechari’ah, and Meshul’lam on his left hand.
5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people; and when he opened it all the people stood.
6 And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God; and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
8 And they read from the book, from the law of God, clearly; and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
9 And Nehemi’ah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.
10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Psalms 19: 8 – 10, 15
8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever; the ordinances of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
1 Corinthians 12: 12 – 30
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
18 But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
19 If all were a single organ, where would the body be?
20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
22 On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable,
23 and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,
24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part,
25 that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues.
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
Luke 1: 1 – 4
1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us,
2 just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,
3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent The-oph’ilus,
4 that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.
Luke 4: 14 – 21
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country.
15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read;
17 and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
20 And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 And he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
If we are to check the background of the reading from Nehemiah we find that the people of Israel had been returning to Jerusalem and the surrounding area from exile in Babylon. This was really the end of the Babylonian exile. But they were sacttered throughout the lands of Israel and they were scattered in their understanding of who they were as Israelites and they definitely did not understand the Covenants of old. They were God’s people but didn’t know God.
How many of us today are really in the same boat? How many of us were baptized in the Church, grew up in the Church, were confirmed, or maybe not even confirmed, yet really know very little of God and who we are as part of his Kingdom? Or perhaps we understand what it is to be a Catholic in a general sort of way, but we don’t understand what it is that God wants from us. That is the difficult part is it not? Knowing what God wants from us.
How easy it is to live everyday in the freedom of worshipping God as Catholics and take it all for granted and not realize just what it is that we really represent, who and what we really are. Lately we have seen increasing signs that it will be more and more difficult for us to be Catholics in our own land and in nations that have been traditionally free. In a sense we are in the opposite position from those people that Ezra spoke to in Jerusalem.
They had escaped slavery, had escaped captivity and found themselves back in their own homeland, essentially free to worship the God of their fathers. They had just finished rebuilding the gates and the wall of Jerusalem and they were beginning to come together as a people. Nehemiah had done a census of a sort, identifying who belonged to what tribe and was organizing the nation of Israel. He had been successful in making them see that it was in their own best interest to donate to the common cause and to give their fellow countrymen interest free loans to help them get established. They were becoming a nation once more and they were moving toward freedom.
We see what happened when Ezra came out to them and read the Law of God to them. This was their heritage; this was the very Word of God to them. When they heard it they fell down on their knees and worshipped God. If we read into further chapters of the Book of Nehemiah we find that the people were convicted of their own sin and their transgression of the Law of their God. They repented in fasting and sackcloth and came together and confessed their sins, crying out to God for forgiveness for having broken God’s law.
There were those who opposed this rebuilding but when the people of God acted together in cooperation, each one doing his part to build the gates and wall, the opposition realized that this was God acting through his people and they backed off. There will always be people that oppose us, at whatever time in history we find ourselves. Today it may be getting worse but it is always there. The point is that we cannot let that stop us. In fact, it should unite us.
Pope John Paul II spoke of a new springtime in the Church. He expected that there would be a great renewal in the Church, a great coming back to God just like the Israelites of old had come back to Jerusalem and began worshipping God once more. Do we think that we don’t have enough priests? Are we concerned that many of the religious orders seem to be literally dying away? Are we concerned when we see parishes forced to close up and join other parishes due to lack of people and money to support a Church? John Paul II began his pontificate with the words, “Be not afraid.” He expected a renewal of the Church.
If we look at the reading from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians today, we see how it is that God expects us to help in the rebuilding of our Church. God has a job for each of us, just as the human body has various parts with various functions, so we too as the body of Christ have various specific jobs to do as members of the body of Christ. But where does this all start?
First we have to hear the Word of God just as the people of Israel heard the law. It cannot be just a commentary on the news of the day. It cannot be some modern philosophy. It must not be simply soft words and moralizing. It must not be teaching some New Age practices. On the contrary, it must be the Word of God. What is this Word of God? It is not a matter of “what,” it is a matter of “who.” If we look to the very first words of the Gospel of John he tells us that Jesus is the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. As St. Paul says, we preach Jesus and him crucified. That is why we have a crucifix. In fact, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has called for a crucifix to be placed on every altar in every Church, to remind us who it is we worship.
What did the people of Israel do next? They fell on their knees and worshiped God. They repented of their sins and confessed them. If we are to see a renewal in the Church, we must do the same. And we must call on God to give us this renewal. We must be on our knees asking for renewal. We must enlist the help of our Lady, the blessed virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord. She is our mother, the first disciple in faith and she wants a renewal as much as we do. We can also call upon all the saints to entreat the Lord for such a renewal as we have never seen.
Last week, we saw Jesus first miracle that inaugerated his ministry at the wedding at Cana. .In today’s Gospel we see that Jesus began his preaching and teaching ministry by reading from the prophet Isaiah and declaring that he was the fulfillment of the prophecy. He had arrived and as he said on later occasions, the Kingdom was near. We are now part of that Kingdom but we have become slack and we have lost the edge of knowing who it is we worship and why. Many of us have become stuck in the idea that we can accomplish our obligation to Christ in the corporal works of mercy by electing governments to do it for us. If we have a just society, we tell ourselves, we can claim that we have followed Christ’s commandment to love our neighbour. We can get self-satisfied and think that is the way that we are going to make it to the new heaven and new earth that Jesus promised to St. John the Evangelist in the Apocalypse.
Well, governments are run by men and while they may do a lot of good by times, we know also that their good works are tempered by things like abortion and contraception. They don’t recognize God’s Word and they don’t recognize the Church. We must not neglect the corporal works of mercy and we cannot depend on someone else to do it for us. But before any of that is any credit to us we must be in a state of grace before God. He promises us that he will give us credit for what we do in his name by the power of his grace, but faith comes first. We must get ourselves back on our knees and get back into a state of grace. What does that mean?
It means that we have to give up ourselves once more to God, put Christ first in our lives, confess our sins, make a firm purpose of amendment, and begin to live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then we will find out what job it is that God has for us in the re-building of his Church, the renewal. But nothing will happen until we ask, and we will not accomplish anything until we have returned to a right relationship with Jesus Christ.
Increasing in Him,
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