By Father Paul Nord, O.S.B.
Sunday Scripture
First Reading: Nehemiah 8:2-6, 8-10; Response: Psalm 19:8-10, 15; Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Gospel: Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
The book of Nehemiah is named for a Jew who was a high official in the court of the Persian king. Nehemiah was allowed to lead the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s city walls (which the Babylonians had destroyed). It was essential to rebuild Jerusalem so that people could safely live there.
Ezra the priest is the leading figure in today’s reading. Many people had recently returned to Jerusalem, and rebuilding was under way. But Ezra the priest wanted to ensure that the people were keeping the Law of Moses. Ezra believed that God’s blessing and protection depended upon their faithfulness to God’s Law, given to Moses.
So Ezra called together all the people of Jerusalem to have the law read aloud to them. Notice how the assembly is described — it “consisted of men, women, and those children old enough to understand.” Everyone who could understand the law was expected to listen and then to be faithful to the law which they had heard.
Ezra “read out of the book from daybreak till midday.” Ezra was not offering them a short summary of the law. He wanted them to hear the law in its entirety — so that they would keep the whole law. Ezra even was “interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.” The people consented to live God’s law by saying “Amen, amen” and “they bowed down and prostrated themselves before the LORD.”
In this way, the priest Ezra renewed the people of Jerusalem in their commitment to faithfully keep God’s law. The Persians had allowed them to rebuild Jerusalem, but city walls were not enough. Ezra knew that they must renew their commitment to the covenant that God had made with them. Ezra wanted them to be faithful as God’s chosen people. Thus he called all the people together in assembly, and he read aloud the law to them.
The Responsorial Psalm’s refrain is: “Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.” This psalm focuses on keeping God’s law. “The law of the Lord” is repeatedly described with similar phrases: “the decree of the LORD” and “the precepts of the LORD” and “the command of the LORD” and “the ordinances of the LORD.” The variety of vocabulary is also in the original Hebrew. The law of the Lord is called “perfect,” “trustworthy,” “right,” “clear,” “true,” and “just.”
The law of the Lord gives life to the person who hears it. The figure of speech called a “synecdoche” is used — that is: a part representing the whole. The person who hears is represented by soul, heart and eye. God’s law is “refreshing the soul” and “rejoicing the heart” and “enlightening the eye” — of the person who listens.
The person who hears God’s law should obey. This response is described as “the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart.” Here “mouth” and “heart” represent the whole person who obeys God’s law — another “synecdoche.”
Next, St. Paul tells the Corinthians that “as a body is one though it has many parts … so also Christ.” Paul says that we are all united in the “one Spirit” which we all received in baptism. With this message, Paul is trying to remedy divisions and conflicts within the Corinthian community. Today’s reading is from 1 Corinthians 12. Paul continues his efforts in 1 Corinthians 13, which famously says: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous” (1 Corinthians 13:4). By writing this, Paul was trying to remedy impatience, unkindness, jealous, and pompousness within the Corinthian Christian community. In short, Paul was teaching the Corinthians about love because they had not been loving each other very well.
Paul goes into great detail about the various “parts of the body” to elucidate our relationship with one another and with Christ. Paul insists that the foot and the hand need each other. Likewise, the ear and the eye need each other. Paul teaches that this mutual dependence is God’s intention for us: “God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended.”
Note how Paul insists that: “God has so constructed the body … so that there may be no division in the body.” Paul is trying to heal division within the Christian community at Corinth. Paul calls on the Corinthians to have solidarity and concern for one another: “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.”
Paul insists that earthly divisions should be healed by our union in Christ Jesus. Thus Paul says “for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons.” These were hugely consequential divisions in the society of Paul’s time. Jews and Greeks lived mostly separate lives. So also slaves and free persons were divided from each other by society’s norms. Paul insisted that our unity in Christ should triumph over every earthly division because we are all baptized in the same Spirit.
Today’s Gospel begins with the four verses which begin Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:1-4). The Gospel writer addresses his work to Theophilus — which means “loved by God.” It is possible that “Theophilus” was Luke’s way of addressing his Gospel to everyone — for all are loved by God. Or perhaps Theophilus was a specific person.
The remainder of today’s gospel is actually from Luke chapter 4. These verses record the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry — he is teaching in the synagogues of Galilee and being “praised by all.” So Jesus comes to Nazareth — “where he had grown up” (and a town in the region of Galilee). On the Sabbath, Jesus reads to the assembly in the synagogue from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” This passage speaks of God’s redemption for those most in need — the poor, captives, the blind, and the oppressed. Jesus fulfills this prophecy — redemption for all.