THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  – C – 2022

SUNDAY OF THE WORD OF GOD

 

Ø  In this third Sunday in Ordinary Time, we see Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth reading from the prophet Isaiah and, saying openly to his listeners that, this prophecy was fulfilled in him. He is the fullness of revelation; he is the Word of the Father made flesh. 

 

Ø  On September 30, 2020 Pope Francis published an apostolic letter called Scriptura Sacrae Affectus (Love for the  Sacred Scriptures) in the occasion of the XVI centenary of  St. Jerome’s death. In this letter he stablished the celebration of the   Sunday  of the Word of God;  to be celebrated every year on the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.  He says:

 

Ø   This led me to institute the Sunday of the Word of God  as a means of encouraging the prayerful reading of the Bible and greater familiarity with God’s word.  All other expressions of piety will thus be enriched with meaning, placed in their proper perspective and directed to the fulfilment of faith in complete adherence to the mystery of Christ.

 

THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH

ü  In former times this book together with the book of Ezra formed a single book.  

ü  Maybe they were both part of a greater work called the Chronicles.   

ü  If we compare the end of the second book of Chronicles with thebeginning of the book of Ezra, we become aware that there is a real continuity between both texts.   

ü  The truth is that now the Chronicles form a unity in themselves, and the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are two different books.  

ü  The book of Nehemiah narrates the return of the Israelites to their homeland after the proclamation of the King of Persia, Cyrus authorizing the return of the Israelites to their homeland.  

ü  The return from Babylon brought the restauration of Jerusalem and the re-building of the Temple.  

ü  Ezra was the priest and Nehemiah the governor.   

 

FIRST READING  – Nehemiah 8:2-4ª.5-6.8-10

Ø  The seventh month is the time between mid-September to mid-October. 

Ø  The priest Ezra brings the Book of the Law of Moses, the Torah, and reads it before a large gathering of men, women, and children able to understand.   

Ø  It seems that this reading goes from very early in the morning until noon.   

Ø  It is a reading in the way we do lectio divina, they read and explain the meaning of what has been read.   

Ø  The assembly listened attentively to the reading, they even wept probably from emotion to hear the Word of God in their language and in their own homeland.  

Ø  The priest invites them to rejoice and eat well to celebrate this wonderful event.  

Ø  This reading is accompanied by gestures of respect and veneration to the Scriptures from the people.   

Ø  The reading ends with the following sentence: Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!

Ø  Is this our strength? To celebrate the Word of the Lord?  .

RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps 18:8.9.10.15 

R.   Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
            refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
            giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
            rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
            enlightening the eye.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
            enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
            all of them just.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart
            find favor before you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life. 

v  The Law, the precepts of the Lord are right and    

o   Refreshing the soul  

o   And they enlighten  the way    

v  Now the psalmist mentions the will of God, which, in some way, is the same as his precepts.   

o   Is holy

o   Is stable

v  In this last strophe the psalmist prays to God asking  

o   That his words and the desires of his heart be pleasing to God 

o   That he may always seek God because God is his refuge and salvation. 

GOSPEL:   Lc 1: 1-4; 4, 14-21

      The gospel we will read in the Mass today begins with the first verses of the gospel of Luke

o   Luke tells us that before him others had written 

o   And that, after having done himself a careful research, he writes, to a certain Theophilus, the truth about Jesus.    

      After this introduction, the liturgists who prepared the liturgy for today’s mass go to the 4th chapter to  the episode of Jesus in the Synagogue of Nazareth, his native town. 

      Here they invite him to read, and he reads: 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

 

      John Paul II says, in apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente, about the celebrations in preparation of the millennium in nn. 11 and 12,  that  Jesus in the gospel of Luke introduces himself as the incarnation of the jubilar year in which all sins and debts were forgiven 

o   The Holy Spirit is upon him  

o   He has anointed him to  

§  Bring the good news to the poor  

§  Proclaim the liberation to all those oppressed   

§   And to proclaim the year of grace, the jubilar year, the cancellation of all the spiritual and material debts.   

      What a beautiful way to interpret these words of Jesus.  

       Jesus, power and wisdom of God, inspire in us a love for Sacred Scripture in which is heard the voice of the Father which enlightens, inflames, nourishes and consoles. Word of the living God, renew missionary zeal in the Church, that all peoples may come to know you, true Son of God and true son of man, the one mediator between man and God (from prayer of John Paul II for the first year of preparation for the great jubilee of the year 2000) 

SECOND READING  - 1 Cor 12:12-30 

§  Las Sunday Paul was speaking about the gifts or charisms that each one of us has received to collaborate in the building of the community.   

§  Today Paul will explain what is the Church:  

§  This reading has 4 paragrahs    

o   In the first Paul says that the body is one although it has many diverse members.   

o   In the second he begins with this same idea but takes us to a new one: all the members are needed, and no one can neither despise any of the members nor say that it is not needed.  

o   We find this same idea in paragraph 3: A member cannot despise itself considering that it is not important, according to the mind of God the members we consider to be less dignified he has surrounded with more care and respect.  

o   You are the body of Christ and each one is a member of this body  

§  Now that the Church is in the process of the celebration of the Synod on Sinnodality “For a synnodal church: communion, participation and mission,” it is the opportune time to reflect together on the meaning of:

o   Communion

o   Participation

o   Mission

 

§  That reflection looking at Jesus will lead us to the realization that the gifts, charisms, are not honors that we have owned, they are not supposed to divide us in superior and inferior classes, that the hierarchy has a service to fulfill, but a service like each one of us has its own, theirs is the service of leadership which does not give us any privilege over the rest, yes it gives one privilege, TO SERVE. 

§  This is what we hope to obtain with this synod, finally to realize our equality, that we are all brothers and sisters of Jesus, sharing with him his God filiation, that we have received because he wants to call us his brothers and sisters.   

§  There is still more, we are brothers and sisters of all the men and women created by God as Pope Francis says in his encyclical FRATELLI TUTTI. 

CLARETIAN CORNER 

            I was very attentive, overwhelmed to what was happening, and it seemed to me that I was reading the Holy Law of God, but without seeing any books nor letters; I  was seeing it written, and I was understanding it so very well, that it seemed to me it was imprinting in my soul but in a particular way the book of the Holy Gospels, which till then I had never read, neither  the Sacred Scripture (O.T). After, by God’s grace, I have read something and I have seen it written word by word, as our Lord taught it to me from the holy tree of the cross. It seems to me that the words I understood were coming out from his most holy mouth. 

            Beside what I saw in these sacred letters (without seeing anything with my bodily eyes as I have said above) an interior voice in the depths of my soul, was explaining me their meaning and the way to practice (…)  To my understanding I saw everything in Christ Crucified who, as he was teaching me the divine letters, was explaining me their meaning. As this was the first time that our Lord spoke to me, I did not understand of these things and I did not know how to comply with his commands. I was crying abundantly and I told his Divine majesty, whom I had very present, that seemed to me that I was speaking face to face with the Majesty of God and said…

 (Autobiography Mother Foundress  5 y 6).

 

The first ideas I can remember date back to when I was five years old. When I went to bed, instead of sleeping—I never have been much of a sleeper--I used to think about eternity. I would think "forever, forever, forever." I would try to imagine enormous distances and pile still more distances on these and realize that they would never come to an end. Then I would shudder and ask myself if those who were so unhappy as to go to an eternity of pain would ever see an end to their suffering. Would they have to go on suffering? Yes, forever and forever they will have to bear their pain !

This troubled me deeply, for I am by nature very compassionate. The idea of an eternity of torment made such a deep impression on me, either because of the tenderness it evoked in me or because of the many times I thought about it, that it is surely the thing that to this day I remember best. The power of this idea has made me work in the past, still makes me work, and will make me work as long as I live, in converting sinners, in preaching, in hearing confessions, in writing books, in distributing holy cards and pamphlets, and in having familiar conversations (Autobiography Fr. Founder 8-9). 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

CONFERENCIA DE OBISPO DE ESPANA. Sagrada Biblia. Versión oficial. B.A.C. Madrid 2012

BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. (Biblia del Peregrino – América Latina)  Texto de Luis Alonso Schökel, Adaptación del texto y comentarios: Equipo Internacional. 2015

VATICAN – Web page:   Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II Tertio Millenio Advenientes 1994.  Pope Francis Scriptura Sacrae Affectus 2020.  Synod on Synodality 2021.