Ordinary Time: January 27th
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| Nunraw. Snow dispersing in hours, 'miraculous' thaw! |
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Aelred - Homily.
In the history
of the people of God, the creative Word of the 1st Chapter of Genesis is to be
heard directly, through the proclaiming of Scripture, every time Israel is
solemnly gathered together for a renewal for a the covenant made to Abraham and Moses. Such is the power of the
Word. It happened at the Dedication of the Temple under Solomon and at the inauguration
of Judaism after the exile, which forms the setting for today’s 1st
Reading.
When the Jews
returned home after 50 years of exile from Babylon, the nation had to be
rebuilt from the grown up. Ezra called on the people to rededicate themselves
to God. In a solemn liturgy of the Word he read to the people from the Law of
Moses and the assembly responded with their Amen, with joy and thanksgiving. From
this time on, the life and religion of Jews was based on adherence to the Law,
and Ezra was regarded as the father of Judaism.
St. Luke, from
whom today’s Gospel passage is taken, is also very interested in the history of
the people of God. For him the history is made up of first, the period of Israel,
and second, the period of Chris and his Church. The first period, what we call the OT, is the
time of preparation for the culminating event of Christ’s coming; ‘The law and
the prophets were until John, since then the good news of the Kingdom of is preached’
(16:16) The second period begins with Jesus and is the whole time when he, as
the exalted Lord, is present in the Church. Christ, the risen Lord, is always
in the Christian community. The present moment is the time of fulfillment The ‘today’
and the ‘now’ at Christ’s presence is the time of salvation. And now life is
poured out in the Holy Spirit.
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| Snow clearing for the sheep grazing |
Today’s Gospel
shows us now Jesus began his ministry on his home soil with his Nazareth
Manifesto. Jesus stands before his people in the Nazareth Synagogue and reads
from the passage of Isaiah in which the prophet acknowledged himself to be
anointed by the Spirit to his task of preaching to the poor and bringing
liberty to captives. Jesus then declares that these words of their scriptures
were being fulfilled in and by himself.
This was a
startling claim. Jesus was saying that the whole sacred history of Israel was coming
to a climax, now, in his ministry in his village synagogue. Little wonder that
some of the people said: ‘This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary
...where did the man get all this?’ (cf. Mk 6:1-3).
And the primary
recipients of Jesus good news were not to be leaders and guardians of Israel’s
heritage, the Pharisees and Sadducees. Rather it was the captive, the blind,
the oppressed, all who are weakest and powerless. The ‘poor’ in the biblical
context means not only those whose poverty is ‘spiritual’, but the materially
poor who really do need help, and the hungry who stand in need of nourishment.
But they are also those who live on bread alone and who never hear the Word of
God. And this must be true of many in modern western societies. Without
frequent recourse to the Word of God is difficult to navigate our way through
the murkiness of the much of modern life. Both in the public liturgy and in
privacy of our homes whenever we open the Bible , we receive the intensely
personal welcome of the Word and a sure guide for our lives. Such is the power
of the Word.
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+... Lord, in today’s Mass we hear how God’s
promises are fulfilled in Jesus, the long-awaited Saviour of the poor and the oppressed.
+ ... Almighty God, grant that we may
share generously with others the blessings we have received from you. We ask
this through the same Christ our Lord.
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