Third Sunday, Year C

Just a Thought

The Gospel’s and more generally, the whole of the biblical writings were inspired by the Holy Spirit and composed according to the criteria of their literary genre, as well as the intention and personal genius of the author’s, which is indissolubly linked to the time and place of composition. This is particularly the case with Luke. He wrote one work in two volumes that are quite connected: the Gospel (Jesus’ story) and the Acts of the Apostles (primarily the primitive Church). The prologue, which is found at the beginning of Lukes Gospel, (the first of his volumes) and which we hear today acts as an introduction to both Volumes. The author speaks of this as an historical work: ‘a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning…I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you.’ But at the same time, he notes that the ‘eyewitnesses’ have become ‘ministers of the word,’ and that his decision to write has a very precise goal: the reader may ‘realise the certainty of the teachings’ received, because of his investigations.

Such are Luke’s distinctive perspective and method. Without ignoring the historical veracity of his work, the resulting character of the account composed by Luke is quite in line with his intention; at once to show the soundness of the received teachings, and to make the reader understand the meaning and import ‘of events that have been fulfilled among us.’ His work is certainly neither a chronicle nor a ‘history’— in the modern sense of the word — of Jesus (Gospel) and the primitive Church (Acts). 

We should not imagine that Luke’s sequence of events is historically or geographically precise. If that were the case, the author would have left the reader the full responsibility — and the risk — of trying to discover on his or her own the meaning of events, of recognizing in them the hand of God, and of rooting out what is significant regarding faith. This was clearly not his intention. And yet one can legitimately speak of the account as being ‘accurately investigated,’ and ‘orderly.’

It may be pointless to insist on the place and the role, in ‘revealed’ religion, of the ‘Word of God’ proclaimed by the prophets, studied and meditated on by the sages, inscribed in the book ‘par excellence’, which we call ‘The Bible.’ But perhaps it is worth the trouble to recall that, in the history of the people of God, the creative Word (Gen 1) is to be heard directly, through the proclamation of Scripture every time Israel is solemnly gathered together for a reawakening of the covenant: at the restoration of the Temple under Solomon (1 Kings 8) and the worship under Hezekiah (2 Chron 29-30), at the ‘discovery’ of the book of the law under Josiah (2 Kings 23) and the inauguration of Judaism after the Exile (Neh 8-9).

The first reading of this Third Sunday recalls the solemn Liturgy of the Word that took place on this last occasion (Neh 8:1-10). It contains several important keys for unlocking the meaning and significance of what happened, much later, when Jesus entered the Synagogue of Nazareth one sabbath to read the book that was handed to him, as well as for understanding what happens every Sunday in the Christian assembly.

The assembling of all the people: men, women, and children who are old enough to understand; the solemn enthronement of the Book of the Law; the reading given by the scribe Ezra ‘on a wooden platform’; the standing assembly; the benediction of God and of the people who, ‘hands raised high,’ cry out ‘Amen! Amen!’ then kneel and prostrate themselves before God; the reading by Ezra; the translation and teaching by the Levites sprinkled throughout the assembly; finally, the dismissal of the assembly in joy and thanksgiving. Out of these elements, we can draw interesting and fruitful reflections for the Liturgy of the Word today. The liturgical celebration is not meant to be leisure time. On the contrary, it insists that we enter more deeply into the Liturgy of the Word, from the beginning of Ordinary Time. After this reading has stirred us up, the liturgy has us sing four verses from the second half of Psalm 19: ‘Your words O Lord, are spirit and they are life. The law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul. The decrees of the Lord are steadfast, they give wisdom to the simple………’

Next we read a passage from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, which follows immediately after the passage that was read last Sunday. It turns our attention to the mystery of the Church, of all ecclesial communities, of the assembly gathered here and now. Here it deals with the unity and diversity of the ‘spiritual gifts,’ ‘forms of service,’ ‘workings’, but seen from a different angle, for it is always from the source — from on high — that the apostle envisages the most concrete reality: ‘It was in one Spirit that all … were baptised.’ Hence the central affirmation: ‘You, then, are the Body of Christ. Every one of you is a member of it.’ The realism, mystical, concrete, practical — of this affirmation proceeds from the comparison developed in verses 16-26. On the one hand, the body is not the sum of the individual members, but the whole, unified reality, of which each member is an integral part. At the same time, the ‘body’ must be understood here, as elsewhere, in Paul’s letters, in the sense of a ‘person’ whose ‘body’ is the necessary locus of his or her existence, action, relation to God, others, and the world. In addition, Christ is, through the Spirit, the principal unifier of this ‘body-person’

The apostle goes quite far with this understanding. Really, the reader is waiting for him to say: ‘This is the case with the Church and the assembly.’ Instead he writes ‘Now you are Christ’s body’! What is at issue here is not first and foremost the functional good of a harmonious assembly ordered in the form of a living being, but the very mystery of Christ and his person. The Church is an image, a reflection of what he is in himself. One can and must make certain distinctions: ‘first…. second…. Third….’ (V22-23) But they do not evoke different categories of ‘members,’ of ‘spiritual gifts,’ of ‘forms of service’ or ‘workings,’ more or less ‘indispensable’ or honourable, in the way that one might speak of a well-structured social body. We have here a diversity in forms of service in a living organism that embraces them in its unity. The anarchic development, the atrophying of such and such a member can damage the vitality of the whole body.

And now see how the Gospel today, as yesterday, focuses on Jesus, the Christ, the herald of the good news that he solemnly proclaims and fulfils: ‘All…. Looked at him intently.’ This scene takes place in the ultra-common setting of the liturgy in the synagogue on the sabbath. But the surface simplicity of the event throws into relief its novelty and grandeur.

A man like others, well known to the people in this, his hometown. Like so many before and after him, he went up to read the book that was presented to him. He ‘found’ a passage that many people, if not everyone knew by heart, having heard it read many times before. But suddenly, in the silence, after the book was returned to the servant and the reader was seated, came an extraordinary statement: ‘Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

After so many centuries, during which we have become accustomed to it, it retains its power of novelty and revelation. The proclamation of the Gospel is always based on the reading of the Law enlightened by prophecy. But this continuity comes across something new: Jesus, the ‘anointed,’ on whom the Spirit rested, ‘sent to bring glad tidings to the poor,’ whose appearance inaugurates the new age of salvation. Jesus, the eternally living Word of God, the ‘Amen’ of the Father, fulfilment of the Scriptures, on whom our eyes are fixed.

‘Blessed assembly whom Scripture attests all had their eyes fixed on Jesus! How I wish that this assembly might receive similar testimony, that all, catechumens and faithful, women, men, and children have their eyes, not of the body but of the soul, filled with the sight of Jesus! When you look at him, his light and his contemplation will lighten your faces, and you will be able to say: ‘The light of your face has left its imprint on us, O Lord.’’ (Origen 3rd cent)

The book is still read in the assembly. In the Church, there are, first of all, the ‘apostles’ who announce the good news; secondly, there are the ‘prophets’ who, in its light, interpret the signs of the times; and third, the ‘teachers,’ then all those whose various gifts are put at the service of the entire body. But each of us, whatever our vocation and place in the Church and the assembly, must — above all — learn from Jesus to ‘read’ the Book.

May the liturgy this Sunday remind us of and turn us toward Jesus when we open the Book that the Church gives us! 

May we keep our attention fixed on him when the reading is made in the assembly! Then kneeling, prostrate before the Lord, we may, with the whole Church, sing in faith and thanksgiving:

Today, we. Celebrate Jesus Christ who died for our sins. AMEN!
Rose from the dead. AMEN!
And we await him till he returns. AMEN!

 ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’