Fourth Sunday of ORDINARY TIME

Third Sunday of ORDINARY TIME. Cycle C

First: Neh 8:2-4a.5-6.8-10; Second: 1 Cor 12:12-31a; Gospel: Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21

THEME of the READINGS

Both the first reading and the Gospel speak about the Book of Scriptures. Ezra, in the first reading, reads the Book of the Law before the people, "translating and giving the meaning; so the reading was understood." In the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus stands up to read, one Sabbath day, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, which was handed to him by the sacristan of the synagogue (Gospel). To turn the Scripture into reality and life, God placed in the Church the Apostles, the prophets, the teachers, the gift of tongues, the gift of interpretation, etc., so that the Word of God might be alive, so that it might be life-giving and remain forever.

DOCTrinal MESSAGE

The Scripture, the book of Judaism. It may be said that Judaism, Christianity and Islam are in a certain way the religions of the Book. The Jews have the Torah (the Revelation of God in the Old Testament), Christians have the Gospel, the Old and New Testaments, and Muslims have the Koran. For a pious Jew of Jesus’ time, there were two fundamental points of religious reference: the temple, and the Torah. In both, Yahweh is present with his benevolence and love. In both, he establishes a dialogue with people as a friend would do with his friends, as may be seen in the first reading in which all of the people enjoyed themselves to the full, "since they had understood the meaning of what had been proclaimed to them." Both are a way to salvation not only for the Jews, but for all nations. In the temple, the seven-armed candelabrum was permanently lit to indicate Yahweh’s providence vis-à-vis his people. Each day, when the Jews prayed, they would cover their forehead and arms with phylacteries to always bear in mind some fundamental texts of the Torah: Ex 13:1-10 (the Law of Passover), Ex 13:11-16 (consecration of the first-born), Dt 6:4-9 (love for God above all things), Dt 11:13-21 (fulfillment of the commandments). When in 70 AD the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed, the Jewish people were left with the Torah as the only point of religious reference and as the center of unification and identity of the displaced Jews. The Scripture is the book of Judaism, because it is the Word of God, and because it is the fundamental code of its religious and cultural identity.

Jesus, the Book and Christians. Jesus, as a good Jew, listened to and read the written and oral Torah on many occasions and religious celebrations. He was familiar with it, he had been educated by it for thirty years and saw himself reflected in it. This is why he will be able to say without hesitating in the synagogue of Nazareth, "This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening" (Gospel). After Jesus’ ascent into the heavens, the early Christians, thanks to their better understanding of the mystery of Jesus through the Spirit, made of Jesus the Living Book, the Gospel of our salvation. Thus, Christianity is not chiefly the religion of the book, but instead the religion of the person of Jesus Christ, a Book which is ever living and that reveals to people the vicissitudes and tortuous paths of history. In the Christian Scripture (Old and New Testaments), the person of Jesus is made present and alive for all believers. This is why the early Christians, those who came from Judaism and the pagan world alike, did not preach the Torah, but the Gospel instead. This is why from the very beginning of Christianity, there have been charisms related to the Book of Scripture: the Apostles who preach the Gospel that is Jesus; the teachers who teach continuity, discontinuity and how the Gospel superseded the book of the Torah; the prophets who read the events of life and history in the light of the Gospel, the living book of Jesus, etc. (second reading). Throughout the centuries and millennia, Christians have been and continue to be inspired by the Gospel (Old and New Testaments), the Living Book of Jesus, as the unequivocal guide of their being and acting as believers.

PASTORal SUGGESTIONS

A Christian reading of the Bible. All of the Bible is Christian. The Old and the New Testament are the two lungs with which the faith, morality and piety of Christians breathe. In the second century, Marcion resolved to suppress the Old Testament in Christianity, but his position was rejected by the Church as being heretical. In the history of Christianity, there have been believers or Christian communities that in certain areas of faith and morality have stuck to the Old Testament; for example, in their conception of God or justice, in the rigor of the Law, etc. But as there is no soul without relation to a body, so there can be no New Testament without relation to the Old one. For this reason it is extremely necessary for us Christians, as early as in our childhood, from our basic education, to become familiar with all of the Bible: with the Old and the New Testaments. At the same time, it is urgent for us to be able to read the Old Testament "with Christian eyes," for it already contains the New Testament, in a concealed form. "All of the Scripture is one book alone, and this Book is Christ," Hugh de Saint Victor teaches us. What an immense job catechists have, who prepare children for First Communion or Confirmation! How important it is for the catechists of adults and young people alike to be able to guide them to a Christian reading of the Bible!

The Bible reads and interprets me. The Bible is a sacred book, which regulates our faith and life. Therefore, it cannot be read as a pastime or in a superficial way, without engaging the reader. The Bible is not a book that is read to help one fall asleep at night. The Bible is the Word that God is addressing to me personally when I read it. And through the text of the Bible, the Word of God challenges me, it reads and interprets me. It challenges me to seek an answer to what the Lord is telling me through the text. It reads me, unveiling the secrets of my heart and engendering a desire for change. It interprets me, giving a steady direction to my life: to my way of being, of thinking, of acting in the world, and it draws my will to follow it. In the supermarket of interpretations, many of which are dehumanizing, we run the risk of providing ourselves with wrongful and harmful interpretations. Therefore, for us Christians, it is imperative that we let ourselves be interpreted by the Word of the living God, for that is our most genuine and truest interpretation, whenever or wherever we may be. On Sundays, in the liturgy of the Word, do I listen to the Word of God with the consciousness and desire of being read and interpreted by it? As a priest, do I let myself be interpreted by the Word of God before explaining and interpreting it for the community?

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOC.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].