3RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C: GOD SPEAKS HIS WORD TO US

3^RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C

YEAR OF THE YOUTH

JANUARY 27, 2018

Jesus, I trust in you!

The Temple of the Lord which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar was rebuilt during the time of Artaxerxes. In the course of the reconstruction, the scrolls of the Law were found amidst the ruins. These scrolls were presented by Ezra to the people. He assembled them and read to them the contents of the scrolls which they thought have been lost during the siege of Jerusalem. And as he read to them, the people were weeping because they have heard at last, after their long exile in Babylon, the contents of the scrolls. They wept because they were listening again to the word of the Lord. God, through the reading, was once again speaking to his people.

Led by the Holy Spirit who descended on him in the River Jordan, Jesus returned to Nazareth and stood up in the synagogue to read from the prophet Isaiah. He opened the scroll and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor…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. “ After reading, the Lord makes this bold proclamation: “Today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

After the public testimony of the Father on behalf of Jesus when he was baptized, he now receives the testimony of Sacred Scriptures. The Scripture passage is fulfilled in their hearing because he who speaks to them is the Christ, the One Anointed by the Holy Spirit. He brings the Gospel to the poor because he himself is the Gospel. He is the Word of God made flesh. God reveals himself to them through Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s self-revelation to all people. He comes to liberate the captives of sin. He is the Light who dispels the blindness of those who live in darkness. He frees those who are oppressed by sin. He announces that the time of salvation has at last come. The Law and the prophets all point to him. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures. Jesus said: “Search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life, and they testify to me.” (John 5:39)

The Jews wept when Ezra read the Scriptures to them. They understood that God has broken his silence. At last he was speaking to them. We should likewise weep when Scriptures are read to us because when they are proclaimed to us, God speaks to us through his Son. “In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through the Son.” (Hebrews 1:1) And that Son is Jesus. On the River Jordan, the Father publicly declared: “This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” The Word of God is not a book. He is a living Person. He is Jesus, the Son of God. We should rejoice because in Jesus, we have received the fullness of Divine Revelation. The Word of God has come to us. He speaks to us. He is Mary’s Son. Let us listen to him: He has the words of eternal life.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.