Readings: Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Cor 12:12-30; Lk 1:1-4, 4:14-21
In the first reading today, we hear about Ezra, the priest-scribe, reading from a scroll to all the people who had come back to Israel after having been exiled for fifty to seventy years. The scroll contained the Book of Deuteronomy and the people may have been weeping because of the curses mentioned in chapter 28 if the people do not follow God’s Law or because of the admonition in chapter 30 where Moses tells the people he places before them the blessing and the curse, life and death. He exhorts them to choose life, but having been on the receiving end of the curses, they realized their ancestors had chosen the curse and death over the blessing and life.
However, Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites all instructed the people that the day was holy to the Lord and they should neither be sad nor weep. Rejoicing in the Lord was to the be the strength of the people. There is much in the Book of Deuteronomy to rejoice in, but perhaps none as much as the prophecy contained in chapter 18 where Moses tells the people that God would raise up a prophet like himself.
In the Gospel reading today, we read about our Lord going to the synagogue in Nazareth and reading from the scroll containing the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Jesus specifically sought out the passage in chapter 61 which begins with the words “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” After reading the entire passage, Jesus sat down and told the people of His hometown that these words are fulfilled in their hearing.
Recall that whenever a Rabbi would sit down, it meant that what he was about to say was authoritative. For this reason, we are told that the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were looking at Him intently. There people would have all been related to our Lord and, Nazareth being quite small at the time, they all would have known Him and watched Him grow up. We know from what follows that the people did not accept what Jesus told them and tried to kill Him.
Although His relatives and “friends” rejected Him and determined that the words our Lord quoted from Isaiah did not apply to Him, you and I have determined just the opposite. Not only is our Lord the fulfillment of the prophecy spoken by Isaiah, but He is the fulfillment of the prophecy spoken by Moses in Deuteronomy 18 (and all the other Messianic prophecies from the Old Testament). This makes today and every day a day of rejoicing in the Lord and a day that is holy to the Lord. We recall the words of St. John when he said that He came to His own, but His own people received Him not; but to all who receive Him, He gives the power to become the children of God.
St. Paul describes the reality of who we are in different terms, but the point is the same. Jesus, he tells us, is the Head of the Mystical Body and we who believe are the members of that body. St. Paul tells us that we are all members of Christ’s body and individually parts of it. He goes on to list some of the different positions in the Church that God had designated: Apostles, prophets, teachers, etc. When we read this list, we would naturally assume the Apostles to be the highest; St. Paul even uses the word “first” to designate them. However, earlier in this same letter St. Paul said the Apostles were the last of all, they were weak, and they were without honor.
In the second reading today, St. Paul says that in the Mystical Body, we surround those parts that are considered less honorable with greater honor and the less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety. One needs to wonder if he was thinking of himself as he wrote these words.
We recall from the first chapter of this same letter to the Corinthians, that St. Paul told us God chooses the weak, the lowborn, and those who are nothing. I must smile, as a priest, to think of the honor and propriety the faithful give to priests and bishops. Based on what St. Paul says, this implies that we are the less honorable and less presentable parts of the Body. Praise the Lord and thank you for your kindness!
In the meantime, please recognize your dignity as one chosen by our Lord to be a member of His own Mystical Body. This is a privilege that is unmerited and unmeritable. This is cause for rejoicing and makes this a holy day. Our joy must find its expression in our faith in Jesus and rejoicing in the Lord must be our strength!
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
