LITURGY IN FOCUS

THE WORD OF GOD THIS WEEK

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Reflection: We are the body of Christ

By SISTER MARY McGLONE

It would take Steven Spielberg to create an adequate depiction of the scene in today’s first reading. Think about it, the whole community stood listening “attentively” for about six hours — and that included the children!

What brought on such a spectacle?

Essentially, Nehemiah’s people were celebrating a ceremony of recommitment. After being in exile and beginning to rebuild Jerusalem, Ezra and Nehemiah realized that their people were religiously illiterate. They were glad to be in Jerusalem, they loved their city, but knowing how to serve their God had become something of a lost art. The drama of this event helped them realize the goodness of the Torah, God’s instructions for their life. The prostrations and “amens” expressing their recommitment to God called for rejoicing and feasting. They were intensifying their identity as a people of God.

Our psalm refrain expresses their thoughts and feelings: “Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.” Unlike a penal code which defines wrongful acts and just punishment, they understood that the law of the Lord is clear, it refreshes, gives wisdom and enlightens. With the magnificent ceremony of proclaiming the law of God, the people were swept into a new awareness that their communal identity came from their relationship with God. The law gave them a path toward becoming all that God hoped they would be.

In Jesus’ time, synagogue services included prayers, a proclamation of faith, readings from Scripture and an instruction. According to Luke, Jesus was accustomed to participating in synagogue services as a well-accepted teacher. When Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth, his reading produced a drama different from that of Ezra’s reading.

When Luke says that Jesus returned from the desert under the power of the Spirit, he’s making a proclamation of faith that grounds all that follows. Such faith demands more than we might expect. It’s easy to think of others as good people, admirable and just, but to believe that someone operates under the power of God’s Spirit demands belief in that person plus faith that God acts through the kind of people with whom we might have coffee and doughnuts. 

Jesus chose to read a passage from Isaiah that announced a jubilee year. That was fine. The scandal began when he claimed to be the one anointed to carry out all the promises it entailed. Saying, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus claimed his vocation as an envoy of God, the God whose concern concentrates on the most vulnerable.

Luke placed this narrative immediately after his account of Jesus’ temptations in the desert. Each of those temptations offered a self-serving way for Jesus to carry out his messianic mission and he rejected them all. Although he obviously had great respect for John the Baptizer, when he described his vocation, Jesus chose Isaiah as his guide. He would not be an ascetic prophet, but one who proclaimed joy and human thriving. His goal was to bring, and be, good news. 

St. Paul picks up on this theme in his preaching to the Corinthians. First of all, like Jesus who called for concern for every member of the community, Paul reminds his people that they were all baptized into the very same Spirit that guided Jesus. More than that, their unity in the Spirit outranked any distinctions among them. As members of Christ, they were to consecrate their gifts and talents for the good of the whole.

Jesus gave scandal to the people who knew him best. Thinking they knew him, they suffered from the same lack of faith that hinders too many disciples. Many believe in Jesus but lack conviction about their capacity to be his body, his presence in their own time. They may participate in the Eucharist and pray but remain ignorant of the power of the Spirit available to them through their incorporation into Christ. It’s too hard to believe that they share Jesus’ own vocation.

The Scriptures of this Sunday invite us to recommit ourselves to our vocation as members of the body of Christ. We might begin by asking the Spirit to help us become ever more deeply aware of our particular vocation and of the gifts and talents we’ve been given. Remembering Paul’s message that no gift is lesser or unnecessary, we can ask the Spirit how to use those gifts for the good of all. We are one body, sharing in the needs and the joy of all others. Our vocation is to thrive together.

As baptized people, let us join Jesus in saying “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” To the extent that we are open, the Spirit will guide us to give joyfully and become all God knows we can be. That will create a spectacle much needed by our world.

Reading I

(Nehemiah 8: 2-4a, 5-6, 8-10)

Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly,
which consisted of men, women,
and those children old enough to understand.
Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate,
he read out of the book from daybreak till midday,
in the presence of the men, the women,
and those children old enough to understand;
and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.
Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform 
that had been made for the occasion.
He opened the scroll
so that all the people might see it
— for he was standing higher up than any of the people —;
and, as he opened it, all the people rose.
Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God,
and all the people, their hands raised high, answered, 
“Amen, amen!”
Then they bowed down and prostrated themselves before the LORD,
their faces to the ground.
Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God,
interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.
Then Nehemiah, that is, His Excellency, and Ezra the priest-scribe
and the Levites who were instructing the people
said to all the people:
“Today is holy to the LORD your God.
Do not be sad, and do not weep”—
for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.
He said further: “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks,
and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared;
for today is holy to our LORD.
Do not be saddened this day,
for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!”

Responsorial Psalm

(Psalm 19: 8-10,15)

Reading II

(1 Corinthians 12: 12-30)

Brothers and sisters:
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Now the body is not a single part, but many.
If a foot should say,
“Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body, “
it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
Or if an ear should say,
“Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body, “
it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
But as it is, God placed the parts,
each one of them, in the body as he intended.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you, “
nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.”
Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker
are all the more necessary,
and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable
we surround with greater honor,
and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety,
whereas our more presentable parts do not need this.
But God has so constructed the body
as to give greater honor to a part that is without it,
so that there may be no division in the body,
but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.
If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it;
if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.
Some people God has designated in the church
to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers;
then, mighty deeds;
then gifts of healing, assistance, administration,
and varieties of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?
Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing?
Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
Gospel

(Luke 1: 1-4, 4: 14-21)

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events
that have been fulfilled among us,
just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning
and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,
I too have decided,
after investigating everything accurately anew,
to write it down in an orderly sequence for you,
most excellent Theophilus, 
so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings
you have received.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,
and news of him spread throughout the whole region.
He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.
He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom 
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me 
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”