III SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
THE WORD OF GOD IS SPIRIT AND LIFE
By our Pastor, Fr. Carmelo Jiménez
We are in the third Sunday of Ordinary Time and the readings make us reflect on the Word of God and the value that it should have in our lives and the life of the community. “Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which consisted of men, women, and those children old enough to understand.” (Nehemiah 8:2) I want to add some brief context to this reading: the community is made up of men, women and those who are old enough to understand. This celebration happens right after the return after the Babylonian exile, which means in the community there are: pagans who came back from exile as well as people who had never left their town, Judah. But both groups had lost the sense of their faith and fidelity to God. So they all were in need of a reform. This reading that Esdras made tells them that from now on they should all direct their lives according to the law of Moses, which is the expression of God’s will, who has chosen his people Israel as his possession.
In many countries, as in the time of the King and Priest Esdras, there is a need for reform and a return to the divine law. They have tried to take God out of public places to make completely secular societies. God has been expelled from the schools, the courts, the congresses, the institutions and what do we have now? We have killings in schools, attacks and unjust laws that oppress human beings. We have gone above the laws of God and the natural laws written on the human conscience, and where are we headed? In moments of crisis we need to return to the foundational realities and the laws that God put on our conscience. The Word of God is irreplaceable for men today, because it brings us rich content in human values.
“Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us.” (Lk 1:1-2) Saint Luke writes his Gospel to make known the soundness of the teachings. This text wants to give testimony that Jesus lived in history; he was not a ghost or a caricaturized story, rather, Jesus Christ is a true story of salvation. They are not only biographical facts rather testimony of salvation backed up by the passion, death and resurrection, and all of this backed up by the Holy Spirit. To read the gospels is to put oneself before God, who in Jesus offers everything, his life for our definite salvation. In Jesus Christ, God is made present, and he offers hope that surpasses all time and space. And so, all men and women are called to reproduce the words and actions of the master, because in this consists being a true disciple.
“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.” (Lk 4:18-19) Two Sundays ago, when we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, I mentioned that the true baptism was when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, because that is the moment that begins his mission as a true prophet of the Kingdom of God, as the long-awaited Messiah. A prophet is sent to announce a year of favor from the Lord. So the mission of the prophet is to announce the hope of Israel: announce and realize the freedom, and to make present the Gospel of God to men. A gospel that offers the true humanization of man, freeing him from the slavery of sin and giving him the freedom to experience the happiness of God. We could ask ourselves: why do the people cry when they hear the word of God? The answer is simple but full of value: in the Word of God is found the human foundation, in the gospel one reaches freedom, in faith in Christ hope has meaning. This Sunday, may we let ourselves be questioned by the Word of God and be filled with commitment to live the human values and Christian values that are born out of the Gospel. Amen.