• III Ordinary Time (C), January 21, 2007
• Theme: The Scripture Is Fulfilled In Your Hearing

• A Liturgical Moment: In today’s first reading, the Nehemiah selection narrates the renewal of the covenant between God and the people.
• It is the time after the Babylonian exile and the people have returned to their land after 50 years of slavery.
• What they had known—is no more.
• For their land, its cities, especially Jerusalem and the Temple, were destroyed about 586 B.C.
• Nehemiah’s task was to rebuild what was ruined—restore the nation, and, in particular, rebuild Jerusalem and its Temple.
• But this rebuilding had to be accompanied by the spiritual renewal of the people.
• The priest Ezra proclaims to the assembled people the rediscovered Torah of Moses.
• The renewal begins when Ezra “opened the scroll”; blessed God and read the Word of God to the people.
• The community received the Word with reverence, and the people are instructed not be sad because of their past offenses.
• They hear the Word and respond “Amen, Amen.”
• The relationship between them and God is again affirmed in a new covenant—
• God will be their God and they will be God’s people.
• (Cf. First Impressions, Jude Siciliano, O.P.)

• Four centuries later: In today’s Gospel from Luke, Jesus makes his almost majestic return into Galilee, the region where he grew up.
• He has just been baptized and has spent time in the desert.
• Now, “in the power of the Spirit,” Luke says, he journeys back to his home town of Nazareth.
• Like Ezra, he takes up a papyrus scroll, this one containing the book of Isaiah—much of which, coincidentally, had been written during the Jewish exile in Babylon.
• This liturgical action in the synagogue is the first one of his public life.

• Jesus proclaims that the Lord has sent him
• To “bring glad tidings to the poor,
• To let the oppressed go free,”
• To proclaim a time of favor from the Lord

• This proclamation is what Ezra and Nehemiah had done, but the mission of Jesus is much greater:
• A far greater new era has begun.
• His mission is to rebuild their hearts, not just their city, and to return them to God.
• Would they accept this startling new kind of epoch?
• Will we?
• (CF. Fr. John Foley, S. J. of the Center for Liturgy)

• Is God’s Word fulfilled in our hearing?
• As we look around our world today – Who is bringing glad tidings to the poor?
• Especially those who are forgotten on skid row?
• Who proclaims liberty to captives?
• Especially those who are at Guantanamo Bay?
• Who proclaims recovery of sight to the blind?
• Especially those who are blinded by their prejudices and anger?
• How is Scripture being fulfilled in our hearing today?

• Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
• In the Body of Christ there are apostles and healers and administrators and miracle workers.
Each one of us has different talents, each one of us is a Christian.
• How do I use my talents to spread the good news that God is love?
• As a Catholic, how do I use my talents to serve our suffering world?

• The same question could be asked of our parish community?
• How is Scripture being fulfilled in our hearing at Blessed Sacrament?
• As we see the poor come to our Social Service Center
• As we see our school in need of financial and moral support; as teachers and staff work to free young minds from the servitude of ignorance.
• As we see the children and their parents in the Religious Education Program searching for the light that will lead them out of Spiritual Blindness.
• Is each of us ready to share our talents and time to make a difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters so as to make the Scriptures come alive for us all

• As we continue with our liturgy,
• Let us ask the Lord to lead us and guide us,
• So that we, as a people, may become the Body of Christ
• And so that the Scripture message of God’s love and care for us all may be fulfilled in our hearing
• Amen.

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