January 23rd 2022.  Sunday of the Word of God

GOSPEL   Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

 

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GOSPEL   Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events
that have been fulfilled among us,
just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning
and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,
I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew,
to write it down in an orderly sequence for you,
most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings
you have received.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,
and news of him spread throughout the whole region.
He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.
He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
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.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

1. We do not listen to the word of God in order to learn abstract concepts, but in order to live the present moment in which I find myself

In the first reading from Nehemiah we hear the very important account of the rereading by Ezra of the book of the Law before Israel. This is after the return from seventy years of exile. The exile occurred following centuries of the closing of the hearts of the people (and especially the kings) to the Lord. After this process of tragic degeneration, the people return and repossess their own history with this celebration of the liturgy of the word. In the Gospel, Jesus takes the scroll in the synagogue and reads the text from Isaiah announcing the coming of the Messiah. Then he rolls the scroll up again and returns it to the official. This act of re-rolling the scroll is very significant as it marks the fulfilment of the prophetic text. In fact, Jesus tells them that the words they have heard are being fulfilled in their presence. When a teacher explains a text that has just been read, his true motive is to connect the word of God to the reality we are now living, just as Ezra did in the reading from Nehemiah. We do not listen to the word of God in order to form abstract concepts, or to learn moral values, even if these are important. No, we listen to God’s word in order to live this present moment. This is what Christ does, when he unites the Word of God to human flesh in his very person.

 

2. The word of God is a marvellous instrument for welcoming, receiving, understanding and obeying the will of God for me

Psalm 129 tells us that the word of the Lord is a lamp for my steps and a light for my path. What is more important, the lamp, or the pathway that I must walk? What is important is the path, the life that I am living day by day. When we are attentive to applying the word of God to our daily journey, we are also attentive to the will of God for my life. The word of God is a marvellous instrument for welcoming, receiving, understanding and obeying the will of God for me. In a sense, we, and our lives, are a word of God, to be understood by means of contemplating his word. The most important thing, though, is not comprehending the word of God but becoming the word of God that we already are but do not realize. In the light of the Scriptures, we come to the awareness that we are the great masterpiece of God. It is essential and urgent that we give time to the word. St Jerome said that whoever ignores the Scriptures ignores Christ. We cannot understand the Christ who illuminates every man without understanding the Scriptures.

 

3. Christ’s liberation is here in this moment, despite its difficulties. Let us live this salvation illuminated by the word of God.

The liberation announced by Christ in today’s Gospel - the light for the blind, the freedom for prisoners, the glad tidings for the poor - this is all true in our present moment. It is correct to say that we are in difficult times, but yet Scripture proclaims that this is the time of our liberation. We too must roll up the scroll, not in the sense of forgetting the word of God, but in the sense of applying it, of living our present moment as the moment of salvation. The challenges we face are the pathway to life and light! Jesus is the key for understanding every problem and every grace in our lives. That Jesus might assist us in passing from comprehending his word to living it, to pass from reading Scripture to living it in the present moment.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

The theme this week is the power and efficacy of the word of God. In the first reading, the people of Israel rejoice when the long-lost book of the Law is read out to them. In the Gospel, Jesus goes into the synagogue and reads the announcement of liberation from the prophet Isaiah. These words are being fulfilled today in the people’s hearing, Jesus announces. The difficulty in our modern world is that words are being emptied of their meaning. Important words like “love” are being misused, profaned, and given contradictory and even perverse meanings. It is important that we recuperate the sense of the importance of words and God’s word in particular. We are rational beings and we are incredibly affected by the words that are spoken to us. We can be exposed to words of salvation or words of destruction. Think of the influence that the harsh words of a parent can have on the heart of the child. Think of the damage that the serpent’s word in Genesis 3 caused to humanity! But inside each one of us are the words of salvation that have been spoken to us through our personal history. How important it is to ponder these words often and proclaim them to others for their salvation also.