First Reading Commentary
This Reading along with this weekend's
Gospel has settings of a gathered assembly.
Ezra reads from the book of God's Law which most likely would have been
from Deuteronomy and Leviticus. He
proclaimed God's Law from daybreak till midday; that's about six hours. Okay, who is complaining about the length of
the modern day Mass?
When Ezra opens the scroll, all the people
rose much like we do at Mass when the Gospel is proclaimed. Ezra also interpreted what was read so that those
present could understand. In our own
tradition this would translate into a homily in which the homilist explains the
Scriptures for us, not necessarily on a scholarly level, but more importantly
on a level of application. That is to
say, the homilist takes the events which occurred thousands of years ago and
gives us some food for thought on how we can apply God's word to our own
lives.
Ezra and the Levites said to the people: "Today
is holy to the Lord your God." The
Latin text reveals that this assembly occurred on the first day of the seventh month;
therefore, this would not have been the Jewish Sabbath since the Jewish Sabbath
is the seventh day. More than likely
this was one of the high holy days since rich foods and sweet drinks followed;
and such delights give us a sense of heaven.
Many of the traditions of our own faith
come to us from the Jewish traditions and this Reading gives us an
example. In the Jewish faith there was
only one feast for mourning, which was the day of expiation. All the other holy days were joyful, hence the
eating of rich foods and drinking of sweet drinks. It is for this same reason that the Church
does not fast on joyful solemnities.
This Reading closes
with the words: "Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord
must be your strength!" Much later
in history Saint Paul would preach very similar words except he would encourage
us to rejoice in the Lord always. The
Lord is indeed our strength and when we trust in that, sadness can never
prevail.
Second Reading Commentary
This Reading teaches us to put aside our
egos and also avoid the capital sin of envy.
Perhaps there are times that our God-given gifts and talents may seem
less useful when compared to the gifts and talents of others. This, of course, is not the case. Saint Paul uses the example of a human body
to make this point. Some parts of the
human body may seem less useful or less important than other body parts; but
each body part is integral and contributes to the overall health of the entire
body. The same is true for the Mystical Body
of Christ. While we may wish that we
could sing as beautifully as that cantor does or speak as eloquently as that
priest does, the truth is that these envious gifts are given to these
individuals by God for His own perfect reasons.
Our calling is not to wish we were like someone else; instead, our
calling is to offer to others the gifts we do have.
For most of us, the gifts that we have are
meant for 'behind the scenes' work. Few
of us possess gifts that are in the forefront or are publicly noticeable; but
that doesn't make our gifts less important.
On the contrary, in the Eyes of God we are all equal; and our journey to
holiness can be best achieved by putting to maximum use what God has given
us. On the flip side, if you do have gifts
that are used mostly in a public setting, seemingly always prowling around is the
temptation of pride.
As recipients of God's
gifts, it is always commendable to set aside time to offer praise and gratitude
to the gift Giver, without Whom our efforts would be useless. And so, even though we might be tempted from
time-to-time to think that God somehow must have overlooked something by not
giving us the ability to lay hands on someone and heal them, we are,
nonetheless, still called to greatness by making the best possible use of what
God has given us because service is our shared calling; and in doing so, we
will be fulfilling our duty as a working, viable and crucial Body part in the
Body of Christ.
Gospel Commentary
In the first sentence the word "fulfilled"
when read from the Latin Vulgate translates as "accomplished". Perhaps "fulfilled" is a better
translation because it gives a sense of prophetic words becoming true to its
fullness.
Saint Luke is addressing this to Theophilus
who is probably a close friend or colleague since the name is preceded with the
title, "most excellent". It
should be noted, however, that the name "Theophilus" means "a
lover of God". Therefore, if the
name of Theophilus is used symbolically, we, as lovers of God, are minimally
the intended secondary audience.
After Jesus reads the Scripture passage
from the prophet Isaiah, He proclaims Himself as the fulfillment of that
passage. "He has anointed Me to
bring glad tidings to the poor." In
this verse the word "poor" can be understood to mean the Gentiles
since at that time the Gentiles had little knowledge of God, His Law, or His
prophets. The big picture of this
prophecy, however, deals with more than just the Gentiles. The overall theme of this prophecy is the
redemption of humankind; and in this setting redemption was just proclaimed by
the Redeemer Himself.
Keeping in mind that Jesus' audience is
Jewish, the words "a year acceptable to the Lord" would be better
understood by the ancient Jews because it is a reference to a jubilee year in
which slaves were given their freedom.
The understanding prophetically then, is that Jesus will set us free
from our slavery to sin and death. This
story is much clearer to those of us who already know the 'Jesus Story'. At the time that Jesus actually read this
prophecy it's not likely that anyone present in the synagogue understood what
He meant when proclaiming Himself as the fulfillment.
When reading the Gospels we find that Jesus
had quite a few run-ins with the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes because they
misunderstood and misinterpreted the Law and the Prophets; therefore, it seems
reasonable to theorize that when Jesus had finished reading Isaiah's prophecy
and then proclaiming Himself as the fulfillment, the hearers were left
scratching their heads in bewilderment.
In fact, we'll continue with this Gospel next weekend and you'll find
that the assembly was amazed at the words that came from Jesus' Mouth; but as
Jesus continued to speak, the assembly became filled with fury.
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of
the Second Vatican Council expounds on Christ's proclamation of Isaiah by
conveying that Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her
liturgical celebrations. He is present
in the Sacrifice of the Mass. By His
power He is present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptizes it is
really Christ Himself Who baptizes. He
is present in His word since it is He Who speaks when the holy Scriptures are
read in the Church. Lastly, He is present
when the Church prays and sings, for He has promised, "Where two or three
are gathered together in My Name there am I in the midst of them."
