The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 13, 2013
I always like it when we get scripture readings that
are easy to picture. Some are, some aren’t. Today’s reading from the
Book of Nehemiah, as well as the one from Luke’s gospel, have visual elements
that are pretty easy to picture.
In the reading from Nehemiah, Ezra the priest stands up
before an assembly much like ours: it is made up of men, women, “and those
children old enough to understand.” (As a little aside, I would note that our
assembly includes those children who are not old enough to understand, and I
think that’s even better!). Ezra stands before the people on an elevated
platform like this one so that the people can see him as well as hear him. He
then opens up the scroll of the Torah, the Law of God, to read. Out of respect,
the people stand up and listen.
This was more than a routine Sabbath service at the
local Synagogue. It took place at a time when religious practice among the
Israelites was at a very low ebb. They had just returned to their homeland after
long years of exile in Babylon. During those years, far from home, far from the
temple, far from all they held dear, God had seemed very far away, indeed. In
fact, in some ways, they had forgotten God’s Law and lost any sense of God’s
abiding presence. So when Ezra got up and read the Law, reminding the people of
God’s love and covenant -- reminding them, too, that God’s Law was not a burden
but a gift -- they heard all this as if for the first time, and were moved to
tears.
This gets me wondering. We are in this special Year of
Faith that is being observed by the Church here and around the world. What would
happen if, when we sat down for the readings during Mass and stood for the
gospel, we were to hear God’s word as if for the first time, hear it like those
people who had just returned home from exile?
Of course, we haven’t been in exile…. Or maybe we have.
For isn’t exile part of our story, too? Our Babylon isn’t a geographical place;
it’s more a state of mind in which God can seem far away from us, and God’s Law
can seem more of a burden than a gift. We do know a kind of exile. That’s
one reason why Pope Benedict has called us to a Year of Faith, a year for
re-ordering our priorities, a year for committing ourselves to a more vigorous
and intentional practice of our faith. Now, if only we had an Ezra up here to
get our attention, to fire our imagination -- and maybe even to bring us to
tears!
In the reading from Luke’s gospel, Jesus does something
similar to what Ezra did. Jesus is visiting his hometown of Nazareth when
the Sabbath comes around. Like all good Jews, he goes to the Synagogue. And like
Ezra of old, he stands up in the midst of the assembly and reads from the scroll
that is handed to him – in this case, it’s a passage from the Book of the
Prophet Isaiah, a passage about how God will come among his people, bringing
good news to the poor, freedom for the oppressed, and recovery of sight for the
blind. It’s a glorious, liberating passage and one the people know very
well, but what they’re not prepared for is what Jesus says after reading it.
“Today,” Jesus says, “today this passage is fulfilled in your hearing!” In other
words, this passage isn’t about some time way off in the future: it’s about now.
It’s about today! And it’s about me! What Isaiah proclaimed long ago is
happening through me and in me! Right now!
Well, you can imagine how that sounded to the people of
Nazareth. They knew Jesus, after all. They’d known him all his life. They had
watched him grow up, seen him play with their kids, seen him work alongside his
father, the local carpenter. Who was Jesus to be making such a claim! But
even so, Luke tells us that the people’s first response was quite generous. They
marveled at what Jesus said and spoke favorably of him. That would all
change rather quickly, but we’ll deal with that next Sunday. For now, we have
Jesus in this riveting moment in which he appropriates a great and ancient
prophecy to himself.
My friends, both these readings are as much about today
as about way back when. We are the people of Ezra’s time. We
hear words of hope and reassurance in the midst of our exile, our alienation,
our forgetfulness of God’s covenant and God’s law. And, like Jesus in the
synagogue at Nazareth, we are able to claim that Isaiah’s great prophecy is
being fulfilled in our hearing. In us. That’s because the same Spirit who lived
in Jesus lives also in us, thanks to our Baptism, thanks to our Confirmation.
The same Spirit who called Jesus to bring glad tidings to the poor and to
proclaim liberty to captives, calls us to use our voices, our vote, our
influence, and every ounce of energy we have, to free the oppressed and those
who are unjustly bound, calls us, like Jesus, to be agents of healing and hope.
My friends, long ago, when Ezra got up in the midst of
the assembly, the people listened and were so moved that they wept. Centuries
later when Jesus did the same, the people marveled and expressed their
admiration. What about now? Well, I’m not sure we need weeping,
marveling, and admiration, but a firm resolve to take it all to heart would, I
think you’ll agree, make quite a difference…!
Father Michael G. Ryan
