Third Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle C
01/17/2022
January 23, 2022
Will we listen???
Jesus, in the Gospel has just returned to Nazareth to his synagogue, after forty days and nights fasting in the desert. He is asked to proclaim the Word of God. He is handed a scroll and unrolls it to the prophet Isaiah and reads, knowing that this is how God will speak to his people.
Will they listen?
Will we listen?
This event in the Gospel of Luke is much like the first reading. God's people have returned from their suffering in their Babylonian exile. The priest, Ezra, a descendant of Aaron, proclaims from the Book of the Law.
The people, after having been through so much in their exile, are ready and willing to stand and listen for a long period of time, to what the covenant was that God had made with them, and they now know that God does not abandon them. They willing say yes and renew their covenant with God and their wanting to follow only the one true God.
Jesus, in the gospel for this Sunday, does the same as Ezra did, as He proclaims from Isaiah.
Something similar happen at each Eucharist when the Word of God is proclaimed. We too are asked to listen to the scriptures that are proclaimed so that God can speak to us as a community and individually. That can be a time for us to recognize the presence of Jesus talking to us.
Are we willing to listen?
Since Vatican II when the liturgy is in our own native tongue, we have been encouraged to not read along as scripture is proclaimed, unless we have difficulty in hearing. Allow the spirit to work within us.
That can be a real challenge because we are so used to reading along in a misselette and not really listening.
Give it a try if you can hear and not have to read the Gospel to hear it.
We need to be open to whatever happens in ourselves as we listen. Even if the scripture does not seem to speak to us that day, it can always be a moment of conversion. That is the time to pray that our ears be opened. That is a real gift to know that without the Spirit, we are deaf to what we hear, what we see, what is told to us, what we experience.
Psalm 19 is used as our response and we hear,"Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life."
God will not abandon us but continue to influence us to make Himself present for all whom we encounter
St. Paul, in his letter helps them to understand that everyone of them is called to make God present to others, that God has gifted them through their baptism. That is also true for each of us. We hear the Word, the scripture, and we too are not just to listen but to let it speak and encourage us to make God present for others.
Gifts such as...mercy, compassion, forgiveness for all, even to the enemy, the one who is difficult, the one who does not believe, etc. are our way of making God present in the world. We become the one body in Christ.
Where ever we find ourselves today, whether in an easy or difficult situation, pray for the gift, the grace, to know that God is speaking to us. Perhaps it is even a moment of conversion, of seeing ourselves as we are at that moment. Courage!
Will we listen?
He will speak to us in all the events of our day
Through all the interactions with those we encounter
Will we listen only when things go our way
Think about it this week.
We can learn a lot about what kind of Christian we are as we truly listen.
Courage
And remember God's great mercy if we should discover some things about ourselves we don't like
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