Por Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB

Our first reading on this 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time C celebrates two men, Ezra and Nehemiah. After the Babylonian captivity they worked together to re-establish the Jewish State and the Old Testament religion. After the exile, Nehemiah was Governor of Judea, and he is the historian of this key moment in Jewish history. He recorded not about himself but of the priest Ezra and the Mosaic Torah.

A copy of the Torah had been found, and every able person was gathered at the ruined temple from dawn till sundown while Ezra read and explained the Law. The crowd listened, realized it was violation of God’s commands that had sent them into captivity, and they burst into tears. Ezra urged them not to weep, rather to celebrate and rejoice, for the way to God had been rediscovered.

In her choice of this passage no doubt our Church reminds us that even those who have lost God by sinful lives can save themselves by heeding the word of God and renewing their lives.

St. Paul to the community at Corinth sought to bring them into unity in the one Body of Christ. He urged them not to be jealous of one another. Like the human body whose many parts serve different roles, so they, though many, are truly one body. Roles in the church may be different, but all belong to the one body of Christ. You and I, like Nehemias and Ezra, are meant to live our Christian faith and action so as to be one in the Lord Jesus Christ.

At the Gospel St. Luke takes his turn as the Sunday evangelist. He says he writes, “So that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.” Quickly he moves on to Jesus when He returned from the Baptism to Nazareth. At His synagogue Jesus took up the scroll of Isaiah loaded with promises of a Messiah: The Spirit of God would be upon him; God would send him to heal the poor and sick and to proclaim that God’s acceptable time had come. That was the Messiah. But then Jesus declared, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” meaning, “I am that Messiah.” As with the reading of the Law; as with Paul’s call to be of one Body in Christ, so this holy scripture in Luke demands to be heard by all.

Oh Lord, let your Word be heard in us.