THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Today we meditate on the authority of the word of God. The Jews in the time of Nehemiah accepted the law of God and obeyed the word of God (first reading). Jesus begins his work, bringing the Good News to the poor (gospel). — In the independent theme of the second reading Paul illustrates our closeness with Christ and one another by
the comparison of a human body.

First Reading: Nehemiah 8:2-4a.5-6.8-10

This is the only Sunday on which a reading is taken from the Book of Nehemiah. With Ezra and 1 and 2 Chronicles it belongs to the History of the Chronicler who wrote in the postexilic age (after 538 B.C.). He does not so much want to present a summary of past events as give a reinterpretation of Israel's past. Although Israel and her kings have been unfaithful and thus God brought them into exile as reported in the Deuteronomist’s History (Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings), there is still hope for Israel's future. The Chronicler attaches this hope (1) to the Temple in Israel's midst and (2) to the Messiah.

The history reported in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah centers around the events after the return of the Jews from exile. If we assume that Ezra 7:7.8 “the seventh” year is a scribal error for “thirty seventh” year, we get the following historical sequence:

a)         Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem in 445 B.C. the 20th year of Artaxerxes I, who was the king of Persia from 465 till 424 B.C.

b)         He remained from 445 B.C. to 433 B.C.

c)         Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in 428 B.C., the 37th year of Artaxerxes I.

d)         Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem between 433 B.C. and 424 B.C. therefore, Ezra, the priest and religious reformer, and Nehemiah the political reformer, governor and rebuilder of the walls of Jerusalem, were contemporaries. We remember that the Jews returned from exile in three different groups: (a) 538/7 first return under Zerubbabel and Joshua, (2) 445 B.C. second group under Ezra and Nehemiah, (3) 398 the third returned in the time of Artaxerxes II. The Temple had been rebuilt by Zerubbabel (520-515 B.C.).

The plan and content of the two books is:

 

I.                   Return from the exile and reconstruction of the temple Ez 1-6

II.                Organization of the community by Ezra and Nehemiah Ez7-Neh 13

1.      Mission and personality of Ezra Ez 7-10

2.      Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem Neh 1-7

3.      Religious reforms of Nehemiah and Ezra Ez7-10

 

The religious reform Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah the governor wants to bring about can be realized by a falling back on the Word of God. Thus, Ezra, the scribe, brings the book of the law of Moses (Neh 8:1) and reads from it to the assembled people who are standing out of reverence. We have to leave open if he had the whole Pentateuch or only a part of it. But it would seem that he read from the Pentateuch as it had been edited by the priests during the exile in Babylon, respectively after the return. By shouting "Amen" (8:6) people expressed their willingness to follow the law. Then the law was explained among smaller groups (8:7), so that people could ask questions. People wept either because of the punishment, which those will receive who do not follow the law, or because the law was hidden so long. But people were encourage to rejoice on the Feast of Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and over the fact that people had the word of God (again) and wanted to follow it (8:9). Out of joy they should share their food with poor people (8:10).

The reading has been chosen because of the similarity with the reading from scripture by Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth.

 

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-30

In a community as Corinth with factions (Peter, Paul, Apollos, Christ — 1 Cor 1: 12), a strong desire for chrisms, which could easily get out of control and would be overstressed, the apostle underlined the need for unity. This he did in the immortal chapter 12 of the first letter to the Corinthians. Our unity with Christ and one another is so intimate as the unity of a head of a body to its members. And ever since Paul we speak of the Body of Christ or Mystical Body of Christ, although Paul never used the term "mystical" which does not mean "unreal" but "mysterious", "great" that one can only marvel at the reality: We live the same life as Christ, are like him, with the difference that he is Son of God by nature, we by adoptation; we are all one. Only Paul uses this comparison. (John uses the comparison of vine and branches — Jn 15 — for the same reality.) It will be difficult to say where he took the picture from. Some think he was inspired by the Old Testament, others that he took it from the pre-Christian Gnosis. We can assume that his first Christian experience before Damascus helped along also. When Christ told him: "Saul, why do you persecute me" (Acts 9:4)? He realized in a flash that persecuting the Christians is the same as persecuting Christ, thus intimately united are both.

Unfolded in detail the comparison yields the following insights:

(1) all different members of the body are necessary for the whole v. 14-16;

(2) the members are dependent on the help of the others v. 17-22;

(3) one cannot say, which member is more important; the humblest receive even more care (attention) v. 23-25;

(4) fundamentally all are equal. If one member suffers all suffer; if one is well all are feeling well. v. 26;

(5) there is a hierarchy of functions: 1. apostles, 2. prophets, 3. teachers, 4. miracle workers, 5. healers, 6. assistants, 7. administrators, 8. those speaking in tongues v. 27-30;

(6) the highest of all the gifts is love  12:31-13:13.

 

Reading of the Good News: Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

 

The pericope is made up of two parts: (1) the prologue of the third gospel (1:1-4) and (2) Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum (4:14-21). It could look as if these two parts are put together arbitrarily. But they both talk about God's word in different ways:

Luke is the only New Testament writer who uses a prologue, in his gospel and in the Acts. John's Prologue is different, since it is an overture, containing in a nutshell all the most important ideas of the whole gospel. Luke’s prologue is just an introduction to the gospel with a dedication as it was customary among Greek writers. This proves that Luke is very educated. The Prologue is composed in the finished style of the ancient Greek classics. Luke is not an eyewitness of Christ's life, but belongs to the second generation. Like other non-Jews he experienced in a spiritual way the events of the life of Christ, "which have been fulfilled among us." Some people already wrote a gospel. That encourages Luke to do the same. But he wants to go back to the beginning (even before birth of Christ); and he wants to write "an orderly account”, not a collection of unconnected sayings as for instance the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas. Orderly it is also in the sense that he reports events just once, omitting duplicates. Luke wants to do real research work so that his readers will have rational certainty about the historical facts. Yet Luke does not want to give us a "history of Christ”, although he is called "the historian" among the evangelists and he calls his gospel a "narrative" in opposition to "gospel"; which Mark wants to present (Mk 1:1). He brings a gospel, too, arranging his material according to the main theological ideas.

This becomes clear right away with the preaching of Jesus in Nazareth. It could look as if Jesus started his public preaching career in Nazareth. But from Luke 4:23 ("do here the works you did on Capernaum”) we can conclude that the sequence in Mark comes closer to historical reality: Jesus preached first in Capernaum and near the Lake before he preached in Nazareth. Luke anticipates what is going to happen and puts it as an overture in front of Christ's public career what John formulates with the words: "He came into his own but his own received him not” (Jn 1:11).

On this occasion we learn for the first time something about the religious services in the synagogue in the New Testament, which reminds us of the report in Nehemiah: First came prayers, then a reading from the law and then from the prophets. Often there was no regular minister in our sense, but a paid official, called chazzan, who looked after the buildings and the scrolls and announced the Sabbath with three blasts of a silver trumpet and often was teaching in the synagogue school. He also called upon a reader for the reading from the prophets, who would translate the reading and make some comments. Prominent members or visitors were invited to do so (cf Acts 13:15: Paul was invited). The reading was concluded with a blessing from Num 6:24-26. This custom gave Jesus a chance to read and preach the good news.

 

HOMILY
HOW TO READ SCRIPTURE

 

Today's first reading and the gospel lend themselves for a meditation on the Word of God, its greatness and importance and its use for our practical life.

1.           The Jews after the exile had the good fortune to hear from a copy of the law, i.e. the Pentateuch, the five Books of Moses, read to them for the first time in a long time. The scribe Ezra, the great reformer read to them. Out of reverence all people remained standing. It had taken many hundred years, somewhere from the tenth century before Christ till after the exile in 538 for the Pentateuch to be composed. First it had started with gifted singers in the North and in the South who in the evening at the campfires had been singing about the story of Israel and the beginning of mankind, which later became two different sources each for the North and the South with narrative and legal material: in the South the Yahwistic Source (J) and the Priestly Source (P), in the North the Elohistic Source (E) and the Deuteronomical Source (D). After the exile it had been, put together by a priestly school. And now Ezra was reading from this scroll for apparently the first time to all the people. People wept. Why had they not heard from the word of God before! Were they worried about the sanctions mentioned in the Law of Moses for not observing God's commandments or was it more that they realized that they knew so little about God's word!

At that time people partly could have been excused for not knowing Scripture so well. After all, it took many centuries till all the different books were written. We saw it in details for the Pentateuch. For other books it was similar. And when the inspired authors had written their books, individual persons did not have a copy of their own yet. As a matter of fact, hardly any could have afforded having one's own copy, since it would have been too expensive. There were no books yet; only scrolls existed, and each scroll contained one book. When the apostle writes to Timothy: "When you come bring the cloak I left in Troas with Carpus, and books, especially the parchments" (2 Tim 4:13), "books" here probably refers to documents written on papyrus, the ordinary writing material at that time. But they were scrolls, which were rolled, not yet documents in book form as we have them now. “Parchments” refer to scrolls written on more precious material, parchment, as scripture at that time already was. Only the invention of codices in the first century A.D. made it possible to have several books together and the invention of print at the beginning of the sixteenth century A.D. made it possible that everybody could get his own copy of the Bible.

We have to ask ourselves: Is the Bible as unknown to me as it was for the Jews at the time of Ezra? The excuses at that time are not valid for us. We have easier access to the word of God, we can have our own copy. And if we do not read the Bible, it's our own fault.

2.           The Bible is a book of the community of believers, in the time of Ezra of the synagogue, in our time of the Church. Ezra read the word of God to all people, explained it and people prayed. The teaching is given to the people assembled. By hearing the word of God together in an assembly the Jews were more committed than when studying it privately. At the time of the Jews this procedure was understandable already because of the fact that not everybody had his own copy of the Law, of the Bible.

We have our copy. And yet, also in our time the Bible is the book given to the church, given to the care of the Church. The Church shall explain it to us, although on the other hand, the Bible is above the church rightly understood. This does not mean that we shall not read the word of God privately. On the contrary, the more we hear the word
the Mass and during homilies given to us, the more we will also want to get more familiar with what God has to tell us privately. But nobody can say: I have the Bible and I own it, I explain the Bible myself and do not have to go to church.

3.           Even Jesus himself went to the synagogue regularly on the Sabbaths (Lk 4:16) to pray and to meditate on the word of God as it was read to him. Living in the small town of Nazareth he could attend the second part of Jewish religious services, the sacrifices, only once, or at the most three times a year, during the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

We are more fortunate than he was. There is a church in almost every small town. And there we can attend Mass, at least every Sunday, listen to God’s word, to a homily, which explains it to us, pray and offer Christ’s sacrifice all in one. Is it for us a need, something we are looking forward to, or is it just a matter of good custom, or worse, something we easily omit for any pretense of being busy with something else?

4. The reading of the word of God meant reform for the Jews in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. They knew that they had deserted God and therefore had to go into the exile of Assyria and Babylonia. And now that they had returned, things were slow in coming. The Samaritans tried to disturb them wherever they could, hindering the rebuilding of the Temple and the city walls. The Jews realized: true progress and well-being could come only by meditating on the word of God and putting it into action.

Our religious services shall be well prepared and so shall be the homilies. But as helpful as these things might be, the most important part right after God's part we play ourselves. Are we resolved to put into action what we hear, or do we just look for some nice sensational feelings?

5.   For St. Luke to write his gospel meant to do serious research work. He was not quite satisfied with the way some others had written their gospel. Probably he meant some extracanonical gospels like the Gospel of Thomas with loose sayings of the Lord. Luke wanted some rational certainty for our faith. After all, our faith shall be enlightened; we shall not believe blindly. The risk of faith always remains when we embrace God in faith, but the faith can be made reasonable that we understand it makes good sense to believe. And that service Luke wanted to do for his readers.

According to our talents we also shall study Scripture and do some research work to get a deeper insight into the different facts, customs and happenings.

6.  To do so Luke needed also some material help. This is, as some assume, although we are not absolutely sure, the reason why Luke dedicated his work to Theophilus, a distinguished and probably well-to-do member of the Christian community for which Luke wrote. Theophilus would be Luke's sponsor helping in defraying the expenses for research work and writing.

Good selfless friends are also helpful in getting greater access to the word of God and in helping spreading if.

7.   But more than anybody and anything else Christ and Luke relied on the Holy Spirit for the understanding of the word of God. Christ had been baptized by the Baptist in the Jordan and the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus in the form of a dove (Lk 3:22), investing him with power for his public career. That same Holy Spirit drove him into the desert to be tested (Lk 4:1). In the power of the Holy Spirit he returned to Galilee (Lk 4:14), and reading from Is 61: 1f he could say that the Holy Spirit was now upon him in a special way reading and explaining Scripture.

The Holy Spirit inspired Scripture and holds the key for the understanding of the scripture. Nothing is more important, then, than to turn to him for guidance when reading scripture.

8.           Joy will be the result of listening to and reading scripture as it was for the Jews when they heard the reading of the law in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.