YEAR
C
Neh 8:2-4, 5-6, 8-10
1 Cor 12:12-30
Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21
The gospel of Luke will be read on Sunday through most of Year C. For completeness, the gospel should be read with its companion volume, the Acts of the Apostles, both written after 70 A.D. Luke-Acts emphasizes God's saving activity in an historical context and highlights God's outreach to the poor and emarginated.
Today's readings stress the power and truthfulness of God's word. In the first reading, the priestly leader Ezra leads his people in an act of covenant recommitment to God's law. The people express their willingness to center their lives in the saving word. In the gospel reading, Jesus presents himself as the one to whom the Isaian prophesy points. Just as he accepts his designated role, he implicitly asks for his hearers' acceptance. As the chapter in Luke will later indicate, the response of the people did not match the submission of Ezra's hearers (Lk 4:28f).
The second reading today from the first letter to the Corinthians is Paul's call for unity in the undivided body of Christ, endowed with Spirit-given diversity.
The word of God is presented in today's readings as living and compelling. It is God's unfailing disclosure of his will. God has remained faithful; his people are asked to respond in similar terms.
The passage is seen by commentators as misplaced in its actual setting in Nehemiah. It fits better the context of Ezra's ministry (after Ezr 8:36). The lay ruler Nehemiah and the priest Ezra were responsible for a major part of Jerusalem's reconstruction, social, physical and moral, after the exile in Babylon (fifth century B.C.).
In the presence of the convened assembly in Jerusalem, Ezra reads from the Torah (probably the final edition of the Pentateuch). At important moments in Israel's history, recommitment to the original covenant with Yahweh (Ex 19 - 24) was ritualized. It occurs at Shechem after the first occupation of Canaan (Jos 24), after the discovery of the "book of the covenant” in the temple during the reign of Josiah (2 Kgs 22.23), and again at this moment of restoration after the Jews’ return to their homeland. The ritual is a solemn act of the community in which the recognition and formal acceptance of Yahweh’s invitation to a covenant relationship is central.
The second half of Psalm 19, used this Sunday, exalts the Torah. Various substitutes for law are used (commands, decrees, precepts, ordinances) (vv8, 9, 11), all of them illustrating the “grace” of God's law. The psalm echoes the sentiments of the readings; the law itself is an expression of God's fidelity; its observance leads unquestionably to life, for the law, like Yahweh, is trustworthy.
Rivalry was one of the major problems besetting the church at Corinth. It centered around preferred leaders (1 Cor 3:3ff) and, as seen in today's reading, in preferred spiritual gifts. The gifts of the Spirit, intended to build up the church in unity, had become the source of a competitive and jealous spirit.
In dealing with the issue, Paul returns to the image of the body, frequent in his writings (1 Cor 15; Rom. 12:4 - 5; Eph 1:22-23; Col 1:24; 3:15). The rrisen Christ now lives in the faithful and they with him constitute a new entity, a single body (v.12). The Spirit binds and holds together indissolubly this total Christ. This same reality is spoken of in John's gospel as the vine and the branches (Jn 15).
Just as in the human body each member has a determined function, which is not dispensable or interchangeable, so it is with Christ. All gifts in the church have their importance; one cannot be played off against another. The elimination of all ethnic and social barriers cannot be supplanted by divisive rivalries (vv13; Gal 3:28).
In the human body, no part can dismiss another as unnecessary (vv15 - 18). Nor can one organ preempt another without destroying the balance and harmony of the whole. Organs, which might be considered less honorable, or even unmentionable, e.g. the genitals, are covered and cared for in a way not proper to the more visible parts (vv22ff).
Paul then shifts his argument for unity from bonded unity in the one Christ to the mutual need the members have for one another (vv25f).
The one body of Christ—not to be understood as a spiritual or esoteric unity around a leader, but rather a realistic intimate oneness between the risen Christ and the baptized person-expresses itself in various ministries (gifts). Paul lists a number, giving primacy to the apostles, as the foundation of the church (Eph 2:20), the prophets, with inspired insight in preaching, and teachers, as instructors in the faith. The list, which is not exhaustive, underscores the necessity of all gifts for the upbuilding of the body (Eph 4:15f). They are all rooted in the all-embracing and fundamental gift of charity (1 Cor 13).
Today's gospel contains the literary prologue to the third gospel (vv1 - 4). Imitating the Greek writers of his time, Luke summarizes the content of his work and directs it to a distinct person, Theophilus (friend of God); the addressee is usually a patron, in this case perhaps a friend or a literary personification of Luke’s intended audience. The prologue is important as an expression of the author's intent. Narrative (Gr: diegesis): the events of Jesus' ministry, as handed on by eyewitnesses (Acts 1:21f), but from a distinctly kerygmatic or faith perspective. (Lk 8:39; Acts 12:17). These are the events of Jesus' life refracted through the prism of the Easter faith experience and transmitted by ministers of the word (1:3). It is not history or biography, which is central; it is a proclaimed catechesis rooted in history.
The transition is made to the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Galilee. The account of Jesus' self-presentation in the synagogue is replete with Lukan motifs. He is led by the Spirit, active from his conception (1:55) and a dominant force in his life and ministry (3:21 - 22; 4:1); it is the Spirit who anoints him for his mission (vvl6ff). In another Lukan motif, Jesus is especially missioned to the poor and disenfranchised (vvl8f; 6:20,24; 12:16-21; 14:12 - 14; 16:19 - 26; 19:8). He is also a teacher (v15; 5:3,17; 6:6; 13:10).
The setting of the narrative in the Capernaum synagogue links the two Testaments, or, for Luke the two stages of salvation history. The unrolled scroll would not produce the cited text of Isaiah in a continuous form; it is rather an Isaiah collage (61:1-2; 58:6). The message, though, is clear. The first and privileged recipients of the Messiah's mission are the socially and physically deprived, the economically poor, the oppressed and the maimed. Luke’s gospel will bear this out in Jesus' personal dealings and his teaching. The year of favor (vl9) is an oblique reference to the jubilee year when debts were canceled, property restored to owners, and fields left fallow.
The Isaian text is designedly kept broad in its applicability to people of any background, yet very concrete in its social categories.
Jesus claims that the messianic text is fulfilled in his person and mission (v21). His prophetic "anointing" was to identify him with the lowliest and most forgotten. Written in a post-Easter setting, the temporal reference to "today" is to be read in the light of Christ's death-resurrection (v21). A key idea through out the narrative is the fidelity of Yahweh to his promises. All New Testament fulfillment carries this connotation of fidelity. It is the message of God's concern.
Unlike Ezra, Jesus will not receive a positive response from his own townspeople. They will react by attempting to stifle his message (vv28f).
There is something very
impressive about the seriousness with which God’s word is viewed in the Bible
itself. In the Nehemiah reading the post-exilic commitment gives its
"Amen" to the book of the law. In the gospel, Jesus reads from the
scriptures and then applies its teaching to himself. In a very real sense, we
all stand under the judgment of the word. Each Sunday as the scripture is read,
it is directed to me, and my responsibility is to examine my own conversion in
the light of the word. For this reason, the liturgy of the word requires a
dignified presentation, an audible and intelligible reading, and an atmosphere of reflection. The homily is but an arm of
the scripture that day, anchored in the meaning of the text and applying it to
the congregation’s life. God is present to us in his word and in that sense the
scriptures are sacramental. Faith comes from hearing. Thus in liturgy both
reading and listening are a sacred responsibility.
For example, after
hearing today's reading from 1 Corinthians, we ask ourselves if we see that
variety of gifts in the Christian community as a blessing or a “threat.” Are we
jealous of the gifts of others or do we thank God for them? That reading tells
us clearly that any form of elitism or separatism is alien to our life in
Christ. We should really rejoice in the gifts and successes of others,
especially when it means the enrichment of those served. In the light of God's
word, then, we ask ourselves where we stand. Are my attitudes towards others'
gifts and accomplishments positive? Begrudging? Self-serving? Then, in the
light of the answers, personal decision is reached. This is the part of on
going conversion to which all of us are called. We can't honestly say that we
don't know what God wants of us. Every Sunday he tells us.
Homiletic and Catechetical Helps
1.
The role of scripture in the church (Vatican II, Dei
Verbum).
2. The relationship of scripture and tradition (Vatican II, Dei Verbum).
3. The private and public reading of scripture (liturgy of the word)
4. The gospels as faith narrative (first catechisms of the church).
5. The word as God's fidelity.
6. The Christian's Jewish patrimony.
7. Ministries in the church.
8. The role of the apostles.
9. The body of Christ.
10. The church and the poor.
11. Unity and diversity in the parish community.