Homily for Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C) January 26, 2025
The following transcript of the homily is in the original formatting that was used for the sake of live delivery with all cues, emphasis, and notes included.
Transcript:
“Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, [and] all the people were weeping as they heard the word of the law.”
“[Jesus] stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.”
Words from the Book of Nehemiah and the Gospel According to Luke.
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When’s the last time you were moved by the word of God?
Today we find a tale of two scriptures and two congregations and two movements in reaction to those scriptures.
Both congregations were confronted by the word of God.
One was moved in one direction in response.
And the other came to be moved in the opposite direction.
However, they both started at the same spot before they took off to different ways in reaction to the proclamation of God’s word to them.
In the first reading the people heard the word of God through the law and initially responded in awe and adoration.
They were caught up.
In the gospel reading the people heard not just the word of God but the word of God through He who is the Word Himself and initially responded with amazement.
They, too, were caught up.
Both congregations started off being utterly caught up in the word of God.
When’s the last time you were caught up in the word of God?
As I stated before, both congregations began in the same place, but they do not end up going in the same direction in terms of their subsequent emotional reactions and their ultimate responses to the word of God coming at them.
In the first reading the people hear the word of God through the proclamation and explication of the Mosaic law,
were caught up in awe and adoration of God,
and responded with sadness and repentance on what actually was supposed to be a day of joy.
The people were cut to the heart by the word of God.
When’s the last time you’ve been cut to the heart by the word of God?
In the gospel reading the people hear the word from the Word, and were caught up in amazement as “the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.”
Though our gospel selection ends with this description of the people’s initial reaction at Jesus, we know the rest of the story here.
The people go from amazement to approval as Luke would go on the report that, “All spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”
We can imagine the scene:
“Yep, that’s Joseph’s boy! You know, ol’ Joe raised a mighty fine one, didn’t he?
And. . . oh. . . wait. . . what did He just say?”
“A prophet’s not accepted in his own . . . what?”
“Come, again?”
Well, the rest of this scene is for another Sunday, but all we need to know is that the people went from amazement to approval to wanting to literally throw Jesus off a cliff even after they heard the Word speak the word to them.
Upon hearing the word of God in this instance, the people would later respond not with the sadness and repentance of Nehemiah’s congregation,
but with the anger and rejection of a stiff-necked generation in a situation that was also supposed to be one of jubilation,
WHY?
Because the “jubilee” in “jubilation” had finally come.
Because in this moment Jesus the Anointed One was not only fulfilling prophecy,
He was ushering in Isaiah’s acceptable year, the messianic age of the great spiritual jubilee, in which:
the poor would hear the richest of news,
the captives would sing the freest of freedom,
and the oppressed would defy gravity in the face of heavy chains.
But the people in that synagogue would have NONE of it.
They, too, would be cut to the heart by the two-edged sword of the word of God that slices deep between even soul and spirit.
Now ask within the diving line of YOUR souls and spirits,
Again, when’s the last time God’s word came to you,
– and you were caught up,
– and you were amazed,
– and you were bowed down and repented your ways,
– and you were in awe,
– and you were dismayed,
– and you were made mad at what God had to say.
Because every Sunday, and indeed every Mass, the scroll in unrolled up high for us,
And passages are found, both old and new,
And a man stands up upon a platform to read as we rise in reverence,
And the law of the Anointed One who came for the poor, captive, and oppressed speaks good news of jubilee to us, who fit these same descriptions,
And we go eat rich Food and drink [a] sweet Drink.”
But the scroll of the word is also unrolled down low for us in the events and people God sends – and un-sends – in our lives,
– and in middle and end-points of the discernments of major life changes,
– and through the directives of those who take spiritual care over us,
– and through the funny coincidences that we encounter after we have been praying for some time and things start to get a little bit too weird to be just funny coincidences,
– and through the consolations, desolations, and the ordinary dryness in between,
It is through all of these and more that God speaks His unfurled word to us.
And so, just as the people in the first reading and the gospel had the same word of God read to them, but ended up having different responses,
This Sunday gives us the opportunity to first ask and then to see:
– What is our reaction to the word of God that comes to us in both the high platforms of the sanctuary and the low trenches of the holy ordinary?
Do we have ears to hear the “Scripture passage [being] fulfilled in [our] hearing?”
Do we have eyes to see the Word made flesh in our lives and fulfill God’s personal prophecy to each one of us that He is will really be there for us and He is already really here for us now?
Because whether we hear God speak to us and we feel convicted,
Or we whether hear God speak and we feel conflicted,
If we are HERE – then we must HEAR and THEN we must be MOVED.
Moved in our hearts.
Moved to our knees.
And moved on our feet.
To bring His jubilee to our world.
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Given at St. Edward Catholic Church in Nashville, TN.