The Power of the Word!

Gospel of the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

I – The Role of the Word in our Relationship with One Another and with God

In His infinite love for us, God has an enormous desire to enter into contact with us and make us partakers of His eternal joy. To facilitate this relationship, He placed reflections of His desire to communicate Himself in nature. If we observe ants, for example, we see that when they discover food they quickly organize themselves into a veritable cortege so as to carry it to their anthill. Although they do not converse with one another, they transmit information to one another when they “greet” each other with their antennae, enabling them to work in unison.

For man, however, the Creator reserved a more perfect means of communication: the word. In fact, if we did not have this capacity to express ourselves, how would we transmit our thoughts, judgements and experiences to others? The word is an essential element in human society – so much so that it often becomes the criterion by which we indicate with whom we wish to relate. To stop speaking to someone signifies a rupture, at times creating serious problems even between family members. In the same way, to deny another the chance to speak in a social setting can be deeply offensive. And no less lamentable is the situation of one who needs a word of guidance, but finds no one to give it.

However, the human word, so important for human communication, is only a pale image of a much higher reality: the Word of God manifested to men, the central theme of the Liturgy of this Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.

God communicates with men through the Word

In the first reading we find the figure of Nehemiah, one of the Israelites exiled among the Persians, who served in the court of King Artaxerxes (465-424 BC). There he receives the report of the sad state of the Holy City, practically reduced to ruins. Amidst tears, Nehemiah utters a beautiful prayer, asking pardon for the sins of Israel and imploring the reestablishment of the people in Jerusalem. God heeds him, and he obtains the favour of the monarch so as to rebuild the city.

In the passage taken for the reading of this Sunday (Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10), Nehemiah gathers the repatriated Israelites in an open place near the Water Gate in Jerusalem, and asks Ezra, priest and scribe, to read the book of the Law of Moses before all present.

From the rising of the sun until midday they hear the reading and explanation of these precepts and perceive how they have betrayed the covenant made with the Lord, following the ways of sin. With deep compunction, they recognize that happiness is not found in the breaking of the Law, but rather in following the Word of God.

This scene clearly shows us the divine wisdom in putting the Law down in writing. In fact, man always creates erroneous reasons to justify his deviations and easily forgets the precepts that lead him to salvation. In that historical context it was necessary to recall them, and the Lord used the Word written by Moses to enter into communication with His people.

Such is the importance of the Word of God which, once spoken and collected by hagiographers, became an element to recall our covenant with the Most High.

Nevertheless, it pleases the Father of mercies to grant His chosen ones even more: after the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we have not only the Law in written words, like the Jews at the time of Nehemiah, but the very Creator of the Law, the Word Incarnate for the salvation of humanity, the Law in Person.

II – The Eternal and Incarnate Word

The Church chooses the opening of St. Luke’s Gospel for this Sunday, thus beginning the trajectory of Our Lord’s public life according to this Evangelist, which will be followed throughout the Sunday Liturgies of Year C.

Notary of the testimony of the Blessed Virgin Mary

An excellent writer, St. Luke unites various qualities that show him to be a very educated man. As a physician, he was careful to include in his reports precise details on the life of Our Lord. However, this did not preclude poetic inspiration, with some of the most beautiful passages of the Gospels found in his writings.

As he affirms in these first verses, many in his time had already tried to write the history of Jesus Christ. Now, those who undertook this venture without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, based on what they saw without understanding what they had heard, easily adulterated the reality. This gave rise to various apocryphal Gospels, which the Church did not accept as part of Revelation – all the more so because some of them contained heresies, especially of a gnostic character. Over the course of time, these distortions of the Saviour’s figure were discredited or forgotten, for God allows only the Word that comes from Him to endure.

Inspired from above, St. Luke also decided to narrate the life of Our Lord, based on what he had heard firsthand or what was related to him by eyewitnesses. Who were his deponents? Certainly, they included the Apostles and disciples themselves. However, there is another informant rarely mentioned, but without doubt closely related to him: the Blessed Virgin Mary. By his detailed, albeit succinct, descriptions of sublime episodes such as the Annunciation and the Incarnation of the Word, it can be perceived that St. Luke conversed at length with Our Lady and heard wonders from Her.

In the context of this Sunday’s Liturgy, the introduction of his Gospel once again highlights the importance of the Word and God’s immense desire to enter into contact with us, to teach us and show us His love. This divine desire will be fully manifested in the scene described in chapter four, in which we find Our Lord Jesus Christ in Nazareth.

Beginning of the public life in the power of the Spirit

With His hidden life concluded, at the moment determined by the Father, Our Lord left Nazareth, where He had spent more than twenty years preparing Himself for His public mission, and He began to visit the different cities of Israel.

Shortly after He began to preach the Good News, He returned to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit.” This always accompanied Him, but the Evangelist’s description here refers to His manifestation before public opinion. The Holy Spirit had prepared souls in such a way that the fame of Jesus had quickly spread throughout that region, especially since He gave continuance to the way opened by St. John the Baptist, multiplying the effects of His preaching.

Every Sabbath, Our Lord would go to the synagogue of the place He was visiting and there He would teach by means of words and signs. Increasingly large multitudes admired and followed Him, for that cogent power predisposed their ears to understand the beauty of what He said. His activity produced a great commotion and “was praised by all.” The Kingdom of God had begun!

As is natural, commentaries regarding Him sprang up in the little towns of that time and spread rapidly, soon reaching Nazareth. Thus, Jesus also decided to visit His city.

The origins of the Nazarene

The Evangelist writes precisely, for he did not affirm that Our Lord was born in Nazareth, but only that He grew up there. With the exception of the period of the birth in Bethlehem and the flight to Egypt, He had lived in Nazareth, where He was very well known. Now this city was witnessing Jesus’ return, this time with an aura of a prophet and wonderworker.

As the old adage goes, “charity begins at home.” He, in fact, wished to return to Nazareth for the good of those with whom He had lived, out of love for them. He wanted to say a word to them, but this time “in the power of the Spirit.” Previously, the Consoler had not touched souls as He would do on this new visit, presenting Him as the Son of God and no longer as a mere Man.

It was the moment of grace, the ideal moment. If regarding the birth of Christ, St. Thomas Aquinas¹ teaches that it took place at exactly the right time, for God does all things with perfection, the same can be affirmed about the timeliness of this visit.

Our Lord had already changed water into wine in Cana, shown a miraculous discernment of spirits with regard to Nathanael and converted the Samaritan woman, among other admirable works. Now, in Nazareth everyone knew Him as the carpenter’s Son and, therefore, they were very curious to know – always from a human perspective – where He had learned what He taught and how He performed those miracles. More to the point, they wanted to confirm the truth of what they had heard and, pragmatic and opportunistic as they were, they hoped to take advantage of Him to bolster the prestige of their city throughout the Jewish nation.

Despite this erroneous outlook, we may suppose that Our Lord greeted those people in a friendly manner, especially His childhood friends, and treated them with unimaginable kindness, recalling past events. When asked to prolong the conversation, perhaps He had announced that He would be in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and the news spread like wildfire…

Suspense in the synagogue of Nazareth

It is not difficult to imagine the small synagogue filled to capacity and bursting with expectation. Even some of those who were normally absent due to circumstances beyond their control did not fail to appear on that day… Everyone was on the tips of their toes!

Those present most likely insisted with the leader of the synagogue that Jesus be the participant convoked to do the reading, according to the custom during the Sabbath worship. As He already had preached in several places, it was expected He would make a long commentary on the chosen Scripture passage.

The reading was delivered from a platform. In seeing Him ascend, the Nazarenes began to analyse Him, comparing Him with the young man they had known. The Spirit worked in those souls, leading them to note that, in fact, something had changed. His elegance and distinction enchanted them. Even His smallest gestures, such as the turning of His head or the raising of His hand, seemed to them to be of an entirely different and superior nature.

At that time in which printed works did not exist, Scripture was preserved in manuscript scrolls, each containing one of the Sacred Books or a part of it. Normally these were kept in a special cabinet, which was a fundamental fixture in every synagogue. The reading was not arranged beforehand with the selected person, but chosen right on the spot by the leader of the synagogue. On this occasion, however, they probably gave Our Lord the scroll of the prophet Isaiah because they considered it one of the most difficult to comment upon. Thus, they put Jesus to the test, to see if He would live up to His fame.

Amid general suspense, the Divine Master unrolled part of the book. With that gesture alone, a tremor must have been felt by all. As the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, He had inspired Isaiah to write those words and now, as Man, He began to proclaim them. In a seemingly casual manner, He opened the scroll at the exact verses he had selected and began to read.

A prophecy read by the one prophesied

One might suppose that the fact that Our Lord’s eyes fell exactly upon a passage of the prophecy that spoke of Him was mere chance… a coincidence, a stroke of luck! But what we often believe to be mere coincidence is in truth God’s plan. By His divine knowledge, Jesus knew the Scriptures from all eternity, and this “chance” had been prepared by Providence.

The prophecy points out essential characteristics of the Messiah. Now, it was the very Messiah, the Saviour, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who opened that scroll. Therefore, it was a proclamation that would resound not only in the tiny synagogue of Nazareth, but throughout the entire universe and future centuries. The stars knelt, so to speak, to hear He who is declare: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me…”

In fact, at His baptism in the Jordan by the Precursor, already chosen from all eternity for the mission of Redeemer, Jesus was consecrated by the Holy Spirit in His most holy humanity and became the Anointed One par excellence. From that moment on, He was ready to proclaim the Good News to the poor.

These poor were not merely those lacking in financial resources, as we hear in some superficial preaching. Our Lord also evangelized very wealthy families such as that of Lazarus, Martha and Mary Magdalene, who was praised by Our Lord while pouring an extremely costly perfume upon Him. Poor in this context were those who did not place their hope in the goods of this world, but were avid for faith and the supernatural. Entirely detached, especially from self, they desired to know the end for which they had been created; however, no one helped them, because the priests of that time withheld the teaching they should have given. These people were lacking – and still lack in our days – a word of truth.

The captives and oppressed who were liberated were not, as some say, those tyrannized by political power, but rather those who lived under the tremendous preternatural pressure fomented in that society by sin. They wanted to practise virtue with complete freedom and were unable, because they were weighed down with a heavy conscience stemming from past faults. Conceived in original sin and morally sunken by actual faults, they were slaves of the devil, for “every one who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34). But Our Lord came to liberate them, granting them the strength to remain in the state of grace. The power of the demons was being broken!

For their part, those Jews knew that Our Lord had worked several cures in Capernaum, including the restoration of sight to the blind. It was a sign that He also brought light to all those unable to see God. For in terrestrial paradise, man had seen divine marvels easily, but after sin had became blind. Jesus came to restore the former vision.

If this were not enough, He should yet “proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Different from the jubilee years instituted by Moses (cf. Lv 25:10), this one would have no end. At the expulsion from Paradise, the regime of natural law was instituted, followed by the regime of Mosaic law; now the era of grace was being inaugurated.

Completely supernatural expectation, created by grace

Having closed the scroll, Jesus secured it and handed it to the attendant. Then He sat down, for, in contrast with today’s custom, at that time the preacher assumed this position, while the faithful listened to the preaching standing. In the interim, the Saviour granted more graces to those souls and the Holy Spirit worked in them so they would better understand who was before them.

A murmur ran through the assembly. Knowing of the repercussions from the passage of Our Lord through other cities, the Nazarenes perceived how well they coincided with the prophecy of Isaiah. Furthermore, it was enough for them to see the reflections of the divine personality that shone in His most holy humanity… It was clear that this was a completely uncommon Person. Who, contemplating Our Lord, seeing His countenance, analysing His way of being, His gestures, His hair, in short, the magnificence that emanated from His every pore, would be able to deny that God was there if this were revealed to them?

Prophecy fulfilled before your eyes

In using the expression “He began to say to them,” St. Luke indicates that Our Lord gave a long sermon, of which he only registered the beginning in his manuscript. Especially considering that in the following verse, not included in this Liturgy, he adds that “all spoke well of Him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth” (Lk 4:22).

Perhaps only on the day of Judgement will we know these marvels that, unfortunately, the Scriptures do not narrate. However, by way of hypothesis, we can suppose that the Divine Master transmitted the meaning of this passage giving a historical context with regard to the circumstances in which the prophet Isaiah wrote it. And He may have also shown its connection with past facts and with what it foretold for the future, from that time until the end of the world.

With each explanation, the conclusion registered in a succinct fashion by the Evangelist becomes clearer: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” A new era had begun, for in a sense the regime of graces of the New Testament had been officially opened.

III – Our Lord Invites Us To Be Part of His Body

This beautiful Liturgy shows us the importance of the word, both in the first reading as well as in the introduction of the Gospel of St. Luke, to then present the Word Incarnate Himself.

The Father’s desire to enter into contact with us is so strong and substantial that the Word became flesh and manifested Himself to men so that they could contemplate divinity in Him, as He declared to the Apostle Philip: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). As the Three Divine Persons are identical, whoever sees Our Lord, will not only see the Son, but also the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Invited to join the Mystical Body of Christ

Therefore, as a consequence of this desire of the Redeemer, we are invited to be part of the divine family. And this is what St. Paul tells us in this Sunday’s second reading (1 Cor 12:12-30). All we who are baptized become members of the Mystical Body of Christ; we belong to Him and depend on Him for everything.

Where do we draw the strength to be healthy members of this Body and not members putrefied by sin? It comes from grace, which constitutes the sixth plane of creation, above the minerals, plants, animals, men and Angels. It provides us with the possibility of participating in the divine nature, of being sons of God (cf. 1 Jn 3:1). After Baptism, the Blessed Trinity comes to dwell within our souls and a relationship is established with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This supernatural commerce is worth more than the entire created universe!

Now, to live always in grace is an indispensable condition for having a fervent interior life. God grants everyone sufficient graces, but these are almost always insufficient due to the deficiency of our nature. To obtain the graces we need, we should pray with constancy: pray, if possible as a family, for prayer together is much more efficacious than private prayer. Furthermore, we need to approach the Sacraments, for they are the infallible font of grace, to avoid near occasions of sin and to be constantly growing in the practice of the virtues.

We live in an immense Nazareth

Today’s world has become an immense Nazareth, for it has ceased to believe as in other times. There is no faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; the Blessed Virgin Mary is not venerated as our protector and Mediatrix of all graces; and the Law of God is no longer practised. Society is being built upon increasingly aggressive new laws and a new morality.

Just as Our Lord did in Nazareth, we need to present to our contemporaries the Word of God with all its power, so that they may experience the happiness that only the life of grace can give. Humanity has only one way to save itself: faith manifest in works (cf. Jas 2:17-18), namely, the practice of the Commandments of the Law of God.

May each one of us understand the grandeur of the calling entrusted to us and, entirely faithful to inspirations from above, attentive to the Word of God and anointed by the power of grace, announce the Good News to the poor in spirit, forging toward the victory prophesied by the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!” ◊

 

Note

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¹ Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Summa Theologiæ. III, q.35, a.8.