Corpus Christi Blog

Receiving Christ through Scripture

01-24-2016HomiliesFr. Chad King

Our Gospel today begins with the opening verses of Luke’s Gospel,  then jumps 3 chapters in which Luke describes how Jesus came about through the Virgin Mary, and with John the Baptist who was sent to prepare the people for Christ’s arrival.  Then our Gospel picks up again in Chapter 4 of Luke into the beginning of Jesus public ministry.  I am going to start my reflections highlighting our first reading from the Book of Nehemiah and Luke’s opening verses. 

Our 1st reading reveals the Prophet Nehemiah and Ezra the priest, who both helped in rebuilding and strengthening the identity of the people of God through re-establishing the word and law of God into the hearts of the people.  Remember how in our 1st reading, Ezra, the priest, stood on the wooden platform made for such an occasion, held the scroll high so all the people could see it, and as he began to read from the scroll the people stood.  Does that look familiar to our Liturgy when we proclaim the Gospel, when the priest or deacon holding the Book of the Gospels up high so you all see and you do what you just did, stand up so as to be ready to actively listen with your whole person.  There is a reason why we show hold the Gospel to such high esteem, just as the people held the Torah, the law of God in that time. It is the Word of God revealing Himself to us.  Our 1st reading goes on to say that Ezra read from the word of God to all the men, women, and children old enough to understand and it says that all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.  I ask you, how attentively were you listening to the word of God being proclaimed to you, did you just hear the words with your ears or were you actively listening with your heart?  Our 1st reading continues saying that all the people bowed down and prostrated themselves before the Lord, do you have that kind of reverence for the word of God, do you understand that God is present and reveals himself through his holy word? 

After Ezra read from the book of the law, he interpreted it so all could understand.  Now flash forward in your mind to the beginning of our Gospel today.  Luke tells us that others who were eye-witnesses have compiled narrative events of Jesus previously, namely Matthew and Mark’s Gospel which were both likely written around 70AD, 35 years after Jesus’ Resurrection.  Luke, who probably wrote his Gospel somewhere around the year 85, is saying that he is writing this account after investigating everything anew in order to give credibility to the teaching of Theophilus and others.  You might recall that Luke is the only Gospel writer who gives us the details of the announcement by the Angel Gabriel, and how both Jesus in Mary and John the Baptist in Elizabeth were miraculously conceived.  Therefore, if a person, like Theophilus, is trying to evangelize and catechize others about who Jesus Christ is, then naturally they would need to know for certain how the Son of God became man.  But what I want to bring to your attention, is that the homily is to teach and add credibility to the teaching of Christ, but also as our 1st reading mentions, to interpret the word of God so that the teachings of Christ can be made more fruitful and relevant in our lives.  I hope you can tell that I do spend a lot of time reflecting on, praying about, and writing out my homilies for your benefit.  And I do hope that they are helpful and deepen your understanding on matters of faith and that they inspire you as you strive to live out the teachings of Christ in a fuller way.  However, in this homily I want to re-iterate that my homily, any homily, is only an aid for your understanding.  It is my hope, and quite frankly, the Church’s expectation that you are reading and reflecting on the word of God yourself.  After all, how can one have the reverence for the word of God as our 1st reading describes if the only time we interact with the Scriptures is on Sundays?  How can an individual truly be inspired and know how relevant Christ is in their lives if they only reflect on it for a few minutes during the homily?  How can we live out the teachings of Christ in our lives or even try to teach others if we don’t do our part studying, searching and praying to fully understand Jesus and his teachings?  As I said, I hope my homilies are beneficial to you, but, even more so, I really hope that you take the time to dig into the Scriptures yourself, or as a family and allow the Word of God to come alive in your hearts. 

Our Gospel continues in Chapter 4 of Luke telling us that Jesus went in the power of the Spirit to the region of Galilee.  We will learn in the next verses of the Gospel why Luke emphasized that Jesus went to Galilee ‘in the power of the Spirit’.  However, similar to what was is done in every Mass, though it would take a little more time, a Rabbi would read from the Old Testaments writings, and preach about it, that is he would give a teaching or exhortation for the people.  In this case, because of the respect Jesus had from the Rabbis and elders, and the large crowds who were following Jesus, it was Jesus who would give the homily or teaching.  As we know from Scripture, Jesus‘ insights and teachings had the respect of the learned Rabbi’s, because as a young boy, when Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple, the Rabbi’s and elders were astounded at Christ’s understanding.  On this Sabbath in the synagogue in Galilee, Luke tells us that many people came to listen to what Christ was teaching and began to believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, the Messiah whom they had been waiting for.  Luke says that Jesus was praised by all who heard him speaking in the synagogues in Galilee.

In the next verse, Luke goes on to say that Jesus then went to Nazareth where he grew up and entered the synagogue there.  And by the way, next week’s Gospel will pick up where this Gospel left off and we will see what the reaction is of the people in Jesus’ teaching in his hometown of Nazareth.  Jesus was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, obviously familiar with the entire writing, Jesus found the passage from Isaiah saying:  “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”.  Then handing the scroll back to the attendant, Jesus sat down.  Tradition teaches us that sitting down in front of the people was the normal place and way that the Rabbi would preach.  Luke says that the eyes of all the people in the synagogue looked intently at Jesus.  Can you imagine how silent everyone would have been, not moving around, not fidgeting, but solely anticipating and excited to hear what Jesus would teach?  And then Jesus said, the earth-shattering words, “Today, this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”.   I like to think of this Gospel as the ‘Mic dropping Gospel’, as I think it would be cool if after saying ‘this is fulfilled in your hearing’ that Jesus would have then just stood up and walked out the synagogue, like dropping a Microphone would be, to enhance the shock value.   But you can imagine the reaction of the people would have been, I can see their jaws hitting the floor, looking at each other to make sure they heard Jesus correctly, then turning back to Jesus to try and process such a statement.

Obviously, with Luke just emphasizing a couple of verses earlier that Jesus was sent by the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and now in Nazareth, Jesus saying that the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him, Luke is clearly making evident to his readers that Jesus is saying that He is God, that He is the Messiah they had been waiting for who would fulfill all the prophecies.  Therefore, Jesus basically said that He was sent to proclaim good news to the poor and liberty to captives.  He was sent to make the blind recover sight and set the captives free.

My brothers and sisters, do you believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God?  Do you believe that He is the Messiah who can do what He was sent to do?   And knowing that we are all poor in some way.  That each one of us is held captive by sin.  And that we are all blind and oppressed in some ways.  Then I leave you with one final question: will you let God be God in your life, will you let Jesus in and do wh

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