* 3 Ordinary Time (C), January 24, 2010
* Theme: The Scripture Is Fulfilled In Your Hearing

* Santo Niño de Cebú
* Special devotion to the Child Jesus dating back to the 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan in his voyages encountered a string of islands in the Pacific
* The islands became known as the Philippines, named after the King of Spain, Phillip II
* The Santo Nino became the symbol of Christianity to the natives of the town and area of Cebú and later of the entire country
* The devotion speaks of God’s special love for the people of the Philippines
* It also speaks of God’s special love for Children
* As the Body of Christ, we Filipinos and Non-Filipinos celebrate God’s special care for us in the devotion to the Santo Niño de Cebú
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* The Incarnation – image of the child Jesus
* God’s presence among us
* Scripture unfolds this mystery today in a liturgical setting.
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* In today’s first reading, the Nehemiah selection narrates the renewal of the covenant between God and the people.
* The scene is a Liturgical Moment:
* 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 to 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.)
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* Given another liturgical setting four centuries later, in today’s Gospel from Luke, Jesus makes his almost celebrity status 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
* (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 in our war torn world?
* 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?

* This last Wednesday and Thursday I was a planning meeting in Washington D. C.
* I serve on a committee of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD)
* 40th Anniversary of CCHD
* (CCHD is under attack from those that think the Church should not be involved with issues of Social Justice)
* The committee is planning an Event to “Name and Reclaim” Catholic Social Teaching so as to continue to support organizations which address structural social issues like PICO and L. A. Voice
* The event will also mark the 120th Anniversary of the issuing Rerum Novarum (Translation: Of New Things) the encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891.
* It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. The subtitle is: “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor”.
* It discussed the relationships and mutual duties between
* Labor and Capital, i.e. employee and employer
* Government and Citizens.
* Of primary concern was the need for some amelioration for “the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class” [1].
* It supported the rights of labor to form unions,
* Rejected both communism and unrestricted capitalism,  while affirming the right to private property
* Many of the positions in Rerum Novarum were supplemented by later encyclicals, in particular Pius XI’s Quadragesimo Anno (1931), John XXIII’s Mater et Magistra (1961), and John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus (1991).
* We are invited to Name and Reclaim our commitment to the Social Justice Tradition of the Catholic Church
* In our World and in our Country
* In 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 teachers and staff in Blessed Sacrament School 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.
* We as Catholic Christians are called to be 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
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* Amen.

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