3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - Scripture in Public Worship and Private Prayer

 
Ezra the priest, from our first reading, was a descendent of those Israelites who had been carried away into exile by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.  For over a hundred years, Jews had lived and worked in Babylon, cut off from their traditions, their history, their rituals, their stories, and their worship.  A generation of Jews was growing up without knowing about God freeing their people from slavery in Egypt, they grew up without knowing the promises God made to Abraham, without the knowledge of the ten commandments or the promised land.  They grew up only knowing the gods and practices of Babylon-- a culture which practiced child sacrifice, polygamy, and other behaviors condemned by Jewish law.

Imagine if your children or grandchildren knew nothing about their family histories, knew nothing about their heritage, in fact, they had adopted practices which were exactly opposite of the truths of their faith.  In a way, not knowing their history, not knowing their faith, you would say, that they did not know themselves.  

While in captivity, some like Ezra the priest strove to keep alive knowledge of the Jewish faith and culture—but most of his fellow Jews had become assimilated by the surrounding culture. Then around the year 458, the Babylonian King Artaxerxes allowed Ezra and Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and what they found broke their hearts.  They found Jerusalem, the once great capital, a wreck--her walls breached and knocked down, the great temple destroyed.  Priest and Prophet wept.

But inspired by God, they endeavored to rebuild the temple and rebuild their religion.  Nehemiah was tasked with the physical construction of the Temple, while Ezra the priest labored to reeducate the people who had grown ignorant of their history and traditions, their religious rituals and practices; he labored to teach the people who they were, give them a sense of identity as a nation set apart by God, and to teach them the laws of the faith which enabled them to be the people God had chosen them to be.

So as we heard, Ezra gathered the men, women, and children, and read to them from the Torah.  He stood on a raised platform in the rebuilt Temple, and from morning until midday read the Torah from beginning to end:  Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.  For hours and hours the men, women, and children listened to their story, their family history, the laws which God had given them. They raised their hands in the air, and proclaimed, “Amen, Amen”.  And they bowed down to the ground and wept discovering who they were for the first time: they were not captives, they were not pagan Babylonians, they were the people chosen by God to manifest his greatness.

This is certainly a fitting reading to reflect upon on this Word of God Sunday. As you might remember, in 2019, Pope Francis declared the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time as Sunday of the Word of God, directing us to consider how, in the life of the Church, the Scriptures are to be celebrated, studied, and shared. 

The story of Ezra and the people of Israel reconnecting with the scriptures, is a wonderful image of what the Church does every time we gather for public worship and the role of the scriptures in our private lives and our families.

Every time Christians gather for worship, at every Mass and liturgy, scripture is read. As Vatican II’s document on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium explains: “Sacred  scripture  is  of  the  greatest  importance in  the  celebration  of  the  liturgy.  For  it  is from  it  that  lessons  are  read  and  explained in  the  homily,  and  psalms  are  sung.  It  is  from the  scriptures  that  the  prayers,  collects,  and hymns  draw  their  inspiration  and  their  force, and  that  actions  and  signs  derive  their  meaning.” 

The Scriptures help continue to form us in the bonds of unity and charity and guide our activity out in the world.  For example, as we proclaim Gospel passages of Jesus healing the sick, we consider how Jesus heals each of us individually, how he heals the wounds of division in the human family, and how he sends us out to be bring his healing Word to the world.

So in our public worship, the scripture aids our mission and identity and opens us up to the power of the Spirit. In our private prayer lives and in our families, Scripture is meant to nurture, guide, form, challenge, and inspire us as well. A day shouldn’t go by without reading or meditating on some line of the Bible. Your day is impoverished without scripture. 

Paul instructs Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” So we do well to study, meditate, seek to understand the scriptures as best we can so that we can be equipped for the work God has for us.

I recommend starting your day by reading the daily mass readings which can be emailed to you daily or freely read on the United States Bishops Website.  Scripture is not always easy to understand. Read it anyway. You’ll no doubt find a word or phrase that resonates with you, through which God wants to speak to you. I also recommend reading the weekend readings prior to coming to mass. Having read and reflected upon the readings yourselves, you will derive so much more, than, if you simply come to mass, cold, so to speak. 

Read through them and ask yourselves questions like: what does this scripture mean in the concrete details of my life? What does God want me to learn here? What does this passage say about God, about Jesus, about the Church, about the Christian life? God what are you inspiring me to do through this scripture? What wounds are you healing? What virtues are you strengthening? What sins are you converting? Speak, O Lord, your servant is listening.

Having meditated on the scriptures, you will discover how God will use that time of prayer to enrich your family life and your encounters with strangers—how the scriptures are fulfilled in your lives.

Joshua chapter 8 says, “Keep this Book always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words”, says the book of Revelation, “and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it.”

May we continue our worship today thanking God for the Word which is a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path, the word which is more valuable than silver or gold, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

25th Week in OT 2019 - Tuesday - Rebuilding the Temple

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we hear from the book of Ezra.  Ezra tells part of the story of the Jews return to Israel after the Babylonian captivity.

For over a hundred years, the Jews were captive in Babylon, cut off from their traditions, history, rituals, stories, and temple worship.  A generation of Jews who didn’t know how God freed their people from slavery in Egypt, they grew up without the knowing the promises God made to Abraham, without the knowledge of the ten commandments or the promised land, and without the Temple, the center of their faith.  Could you imagine? No faith, no hope, no knowledge of God’s love. They grew up only knowing the gods and practices of Babylon-- a culture which practiced child sacrifice, polygamy, and other behaviors condemned by Jewish law.

After the Babylonians were defeated by the Persians, the Jews were freed. Ezra, the priest, was tasked to lead the Jews back to Jerusalem. But what they found there was devastating: they found the holy city in ruins--her walls breached and knocked down, the great temple destroyed.  They wept.
A campaign was launched by Nehemiah to rebuild the temple and Ezra the priest endeavored to reeducate the people who had grown ignorant of their history, of their traditions, rituals and practices—to teach the people who they were, their identity, and the laws of the faith which enabled them to be the people God had chosen them to be.

We heard today of the completion of the building of the Temple, which took much effort and many sacrifices to complete, yet, when it was done, the people celebrated with great joy.

Over the last few generations, the Church in the west, Europe and America has seen similar devastation. Places where Catholicism flourished are now nearly devoid of our holy faith. Generations are essentially ignorant of Catholic Doctrine. Beautiful churches fall into ruin.

Rebuilding will always follow the model we find in Ezra: teaching, prayer, and sacrifice. I think, and I’d like to hope, that the younger clergy particularly, are committed to rebuilding, through the teaching and practice of the fullness of God’s Word…for watered-down Catholicism is a failure and leads to ruin...We seek to rebuild according to God's plan, not our own image of what we think the Church should be, for as Psalm 127 says, "Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain" by striving for lives of holiness in union with the Lord.

So, please pray daily for your priests and bishops, and support them by demanding the fullness of the Gospel, that will help us to seek the holiness the Lord wants for each of us, that we may all go rejoicing to the house of the Lord, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Pope, Bishop, and clergy may work to build up the Church according to the precepts of God’s Holy Word.

For the purification of Holy Church from all error and heresy, especially among those who preach and teach.

That the fire of the Holy Spirit may be evident in all members of the Church, and in this parish community.

For mercy and peace for all those who suffer: for the sick and diseased, for those undergoing surgery this week, for the destitute and despairing, for all victims of war, violence, and abuse, and for those who will die today and the consolation of their families.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, and for N., for whom this mass is offered.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

3rd Sunday in OT 2019 - Jesus brings us God

Over in the school these past two weeks, I’ve finally had the opportunity to do a little teaching. I’ve visited each of the grades now, and I taught a lesson for each of them on the liturgical year: how the seasons of the Church year celebrate the different seasons of Jesus’ life so we can follow Jesus more faithfully. So I reviewed with them how Advent and Christmas helps us to prepare our hearts to believe in Jesus and love Him, and how now in Ordinary Time we hear about many of the wonderful miracles Jesus performed and his preaching and teaching about the Kingdom of God. Again, Ordinary Time helps us to put the lessons of Jesus’ miracles and preaching into practice into the ordinary events of our life.

Last Sunday, those who braved the snow and cold, heard of Jesus’ first miracle: his miracle at the Wedding at Cana—how Jesus changed water into wine at the urging of his mother. We, like the servants at the wedding, should, as Jesus’ mother teaches us, to do whatever he tells us. And like the disciples who witnessed the miracle, we are to glorify God for the amazing things Jesus does in our lives.

And now this weekend, we hear Jesus’ very first homily recorded in Luke’s Gospel. Emerging from the desert, having fasted and prayed for 40 days and having faced the temptations of the devil, Jesus goes to the synogogue in his native place, Nazareth. There Jesus reads from the scripture and teaches people what God is doing in their midst. Jesus explained how those ancient prophecies of Isaiah were being fulfilled in their midst. God promised that He would bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind. And Jesus make the amazing claim that those promises were being fulfilled in Him.

Well, what does this event in the life of Jesus mean for our Ordinary day to day lives?

In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI asks this question another way. He asks “What did Jesus actually bring us?” We still have wars. We still have famine. People still suffer. People still get sick and die. So what did Jesus actually bring? And Pope Benedict answers the question by saying: “Jesus brought us God. Jesus brings us God.”

Jesus is much more than a social worker. He’s not just a nice guy who came to teach us a few useful things about living together in harmony. He’s not just a philosopher who gives us a theory about life, the universe, and everything. He’s not just a politician who promises to fulfill every wish we could ever have.

Jesus brings us something that nothing else and no one else on earth can give: the gift of God Himself. Jesus is God, and Jesus is God’s gift of Himself to Us who need Him. Only God can give us the liberty we need to truly be free. Only God can forgive sins. Only God can give us the gift of eternal life. Only God can give us the good news that changes our life from the core. Jesus shows us the face of God. Jesus reveals the heart of God. Jesus brings us God. For He is Truly God who gives Himself that we may have life.

One of the errors of our modern day is that we think we can save ourselves, that we don’t need God, we can do it on our own. If we just elect the right politicians. If just enact the right law. If we just force everyone to adopt the right set of public policies, if we just get the right sized house or the right amount of cash in the savings account, if we just outlaw certain “triggering” words, then we’ll be free…then we’ll be happy.

This attempt to save ourselves—this belief that we can live rightly without God—is a symptom of the deepest soul sickness, going all the way back to the garden of eden, when adam and eve grasped at a reality divorced from God. They chose to ignore God’s command, to ignore God’s plan for humanity. And each one of us does the same when we choose sin over faithfulness.

And the wars, the violence, the hostility between men and women, the brokenness in families,  the addictions, the penchant for self-destruction is a result of this attempt to build a life and build a world without God. Who will save us from this? Who will save us from the tendency of “not doing the good we want to do, and doing the evil we don’t want to do” as St. paul says? Who will give us the strength to be able to love one another as deeply as we yearn to do? Who will teach us what humanity is meant to be? Who will reconcile us? Who will bring us peace? Jesus “Jesus brought us God. Jesus brings us God.”

In our first reading, we heard a foreshadowing of this amazing truth. From the book of Nehemiah we heard how the Jews fell face-down and wept when the priest read to them from God’s Word. 70 years they had been captive in Babylon. An entire generation did not know God, they did not know the promises of God, they did not know the commandments of God that help us to live a holy life. And they wept when they discovered what God wanted for them, they wept when they discovered that they were not created to be captives to the powers of the world, they wept when they learned they were created to be God’s chosen people, chosen by God to manifest His goodness, his truth, his beauty, his light.

And the Jewish people had this reaction simply from reading from the first five books of the Old Testament. What should our reaction be, how immense should our gratitude be, to come here, and to receive the very gift of God, the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior in the Eucharist. I have known Catholics, similarly to break down and weep in gratitude after encountering Jesus in the confessional, they weep to discover that their sins are forgiven.

This, too, is why daily prayer and daily reading of the Word of God is so important. Because daily we, God’s chosen people are meant to encounter him, to open our hearts and minds to him. We are meant to prayerfully encounter the God who desires to free us, to illuminate us, to guide us in being his holy people, members of his mystical body tasked at manifesting his goodness, his life, his beauty, his truth in the ordinary circumstances of our lives, and bringing sight, freedom, good tiding to those in need of it, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.