The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to strive for unity in the Body of Christ as we meditate on the Word that is Life.
Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano
The reading from the Book of Nehemiah describes Ezra reading the Law.
* [8:1–18] Chronologically this belongs after Ezr 8:36. The gloss mentioning Nehemiah in Neh 8:9 was inserted in this Ezra section after the dislocation of several parts of Ezra-Nehemiah had occurred. There is no clear evidence of a simultaneous presence of Nehemiah and Ezra in Jerusalem; Neh 12:26, 36 are also scribal glosses.1
Psalm 19 praises God’s Glory in Creation and the Law.
* [Psalm 19] The heavenly elements of the world, now beautifully arranged, bespeak the power and wisdom of their creator (Ps 19:2–7). The creator’s wisdom is available to human beings in the law (Ps 19:8–11), toward which the psalmist prays to be open (Ps 19:12–14). The themes of light and speech unify the poem.2
The reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians imagines One Body with many members.
* [12:12–26] The image of a body is introduced to explain Christ’s relationship with believers (1 Cor 12:12). 1 Cor 12:13 applies this model to the church: by baptism all, despite diversity of ethnic or social origins, are integrated into one organism. 1 Cor 12:14–26 then develop the need for diversity of function among the parts of a body without threat to its unity.3
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus quotes Isaiah prior to His rejection at Nazareth.
* [4:18] The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me: see note on Lk 3:21–22. As this incident develops, Jesus is portrayed as a prophet whose ministry is compared to that of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Prophetic anointings are known in first-century Palestinian Judaism from the Qumran literature that speaks of prophets as God’s anointed ones. To bring glad tidings to the poor: more than any other gospel writer Luke is concerned with Jesus’ attitude toward the economically and socially poor (see Lk 6:20, 24; 12:16–21; 14:12–14; 16:19–26; 19:8). At times, the poor in Luke’s gospel are associated with the downtrodden, the oppressed and afflicted, the forgotten and the neglected (Lk 4:18; 6:20–22; 7:22; 14:12–14), and it is they who accept Jesus’ message of salvation.4
Mary Lee Brock comments that praying with Ezra reading the law and Jesus reading in the synagogue invites her to examine the second reading from Paul to the Corinthians through a new lens. The metaphor that the Church is comprised of many parts of the same body is a favorite scripture passage and an effective way to open up discussions about community and variety in gifts.
Today as I repeat the refrain from the Psalm: Your words, Lord, are spirit and life, I pray to be kind to myself when I recognize my sinfulness and ask God for guidance to be better by knowing I am loved. I pray to remember the fundamental lesson that Jesus taught that day in the synagogue, and to strive to do as Jesus did by honoring the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed in any way I am able. And I pray in gratitude for the talents that God has given me and ask that I be shown the way to use those talents to contribute to the one body of humanity. And should I ever find myself in a lively game of telephone again, I pray to listen to the wisdom of the words of St. Ignatius: It should be presupposed that every good Christian ought to be more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor's statement than to condemn it. Further, if one cannot interpret it favorably, one should ask how the other means it.5
Don Schwager quotes “Jesus fulfills the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 61,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"Now it was necessary that he should manifest himself to the Israelites and that the mystery of his incarnation should now shine forth to those who did not know him. Now that God the Father had anointed him to save the world, he very wisely orders this also [that his fame should now spread widely]. This favor he grants first to the people of Nazareth, because, humanly speaking, he had grown up among them. Having entered the synagogue, therefore, he takes the book to read. Having opened it, he selects a passage in the Prophets which declares the mystery concerning him. By these words he himself tells us very clearly by the voice of the prophet that he would both be made man and come to save the world. For we affirm that the Son was anointed in no other way than by having become like us according to the flesh and taking our nature. Being at once God and man, he both gives the Spirit to the creation in his divine nature and receives it from God the Father in his human nature. It is he who sanctifies the whole creation, both by shining forth from the Holy Father and by bestowing the Spirit. He himself pours forth his own Spirit on the powers above and on those who recognized his appearing." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 12)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 comments that we might feel that we are an insignificant part of the Church. So many people seem to be more vital to the functioning of the body of Christ than we are.
So try seeing the body of Christ—and yourself—the way God does. Each person has a role to play, and if everyone were the same, the Church wouldn’t be all that God wants it to be. God made you exactly as you are to help make his body, the Church, whole. “Thank you, Lord, that even I am an essential member of your body!”7
Nicholas King SJ, a tutor in Biblical Studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, comments that, in a too-small nutshell, is 1 Corinthians, one important New Testament approach to the perennial problem of divisions among Christians.
With that startling beginning, Paul is under way, and I encourage you to read through the entire letter. Consider how Paul approaches his task, with a series of solutions. First, he argues, they have to ‘get Jesus’ cross right’, and he recalls the mood in which he arrived in their city in the first place, fresh, apparently, from a minor disaster in Athens (2:1-5; and for what, according to Luke, happened after his Areopagus speech, see Acts 17:32-18:1). Second, they have to ‘get their apostles right’, as he offers a treatment of himself and Apollos (which is clearly where the tension lies), in terms suggesting that there is nothing special about Paul or Apollos or the Corinthians (3:1-9). The third attempt at a solution you might call ‘getting your head right’ (11:14-16), as also ‘getting the Lord’s Supper right’ (11:17-26); his fourth is ‘getting the body right’, where Paul makes humorous and original use of a philosophical trope familiar in the ancient world (12:12-30). His fifth, and perhaps final, attempt is written straight into the Corinthian situation, though as it stands, it interrupts the flow of the argument between chapters 12 and 14: it is the poem on love (12:31-13:13), Paul’s portrait of Jesus (acting precisely as those Corinthians were failing to act) which we might entitle ‘getting your heart right’.8
Friar Jude Winkler comments on Ezra’s call to rejoice instead of mourning the recovery of the Law. The most important gifts of the Spirit in the community of Corinth are those in service of others. Friar Jude notes that Jesus is the Jubilee of liberation and healing.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares that both Genesis and the Gospels point us to the truth that “everyone belongs.”
Those who don’t have anything to prove or protect believe they are loved as they are. But we who have spent our lives ascending the spiritual ladder have a harder time hearing this truth. For the truth isn’t found up at the top of our striving, but down at the bottom in our deepest nature. By trying to climb the ladder upward we miss Christ, who comes down through the Incarnation. The proclamation of the Reign of God is a radical political and theological statement. It has nothing to do with being perfect. It has to do with living inside the Big Frame, the final and full state of affairs, the lasting perspective. The gospel is before all else a call to live differently, so that life can be shared with others. In other words, the gospel is ultimately calling us to a stance of simplicity, vulnerability, dialogue, powerlessness, and humility. These are the only virtues that make communion and community and intimacy possible.9
Scripture and Tradition lead us to rely on the prompting of the Spirit to seek unity in Jesus' love for all humanity and Creation.
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