Homily for 3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 26, 2025
Luke 1: 1-14; 4: 14-21
Neh 8: 2-6, 8-10
The Fountains, Tuckahoe
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

Christ Reading in the Synagog
(James Tissot)

“I’ve decided … to write down in an orderly sequence … the events that have been fulfilled among us … so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you’ve received” (Luke 1: 1, 3-4).

Pope Francis has designated the 3d Sunday in Ordinary Time as Sunday of the Word of God.  Of course, we celebrate God’s Word every Sunday.  Our Holy Father wants to emphasize the importance of the Word of God.  He’s said many times that Christians should read the Scriptures regularly.  He urges us even to carry a New Testament with us so that we can read and meditate on it at odd moments like when riding a bus, standing in line, or taking a coffee break.

Today’s readings present us with some thoughts on the Word of God.  St. Luke begins his Gospel by stating his intention to present clearly and in good order what Jesus and the early Church have done and taught so that we may be well informed and know what we are to believe and how we are to live.  He refers to material that’s been handed down from the apostles and other early disciples of Jesus (1:2).  In other words, he’s heard and accepted the Word of God, and now he’s going to do his part to pass that on, 1st to someone he addresses as “most excellent Theophilus” (1:3).  Is anyone here named Theophilus?  I didn’t think so.  Luke’s Theophilus is perhaps a distinguished catechumen or baptized believer; or perhaps the name stands for all of us; “Theophilus” is Greek for “lover of God.”  So all of you are, in fact, Theophilus—and you didn’t even know it!

After his 4-verse introduction, Luke tells the stories we heard during Advent and Christmas, the annunciation and birth stories of John the Baptist and Jesus, and of Jesus’ baptism and his temptations in the desert; he gives a genealogy of Jesus going back from St. Joseph to Adam.

Then he comes to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, the 2d part of our gospel reading today.  Jesus goes into his hometown synagog on the Sabbath, “according to his custom” (4:16)—he’s a faithful Jew—and is asked to read.  He takes up a portion of God’s Word.  In the synagog there would’ve been regular sequential readings from the Torah and the prophets, similar to our way of reading in church.  Thus Jesus begins his ministry of salvation by reading from Isaiah.  In this portion of the Word of God, he finds reference to himself and what he’s about to do.  He’s to fulfill the Scripture passage that he just read, “to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives,” anointing and healing to all who will turn to the Lord (4:18-19,21).

Our own reading of the Word of God, whether from the Old Testament or the New, ought to instruct and guide us, as it did Jesus.  How are we to live?  What does God want us to believe and to do?  How are we to bring the sacred Scriptures, the Word of God, to life in our homes, workplaces, schools, marketplaces, and streets?

In our 1st reading, we heard how the Jewish people received God’s Word read and explained to them by the priest Ezra.  The reading says that Ezra read to them “from daybreak till midday” (Neh 8:3).  Aren’t you glad our readings aren’t that long?  The people weren’t familiar with the Scriptures, which struck their hearts.  Yet Ezra told them to rejoice, because God was speaking to them and showing them how to live in a way pleasing to him.  “Rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength!” (Neh 8:10).

The Word of God, whether from the Old Testament or the New, from the Gospels or the letters of the apostles, is our strength.  It connects us to God and shows us the path to eternal life.

Furthermore, we must understand that the Word of God isn’t only words on the pages of a book or what we hear from the pulpit.  Jesus Christ is the living Word of God, the Word that became flesh and lived among us (cf. John 1:14).  Our true connection to God, our life and salvation, is from him, thru him, and in him.  He wants a personal relationship with each of us, a relationship that we foster by reading his Scriptures, by prayer, by worship, by trusting in him, by doing our best to live according to “the certainty of the teachings [we] have received.”  Therefore, sisters and brothers, take up your Bible and read it diligently, opening your heart to God’s Word.  Let Jesus Christ, the Word of God, “enlighten your eye,” as our psalm says (Ps 19:9), and “refresh your soul” and “give you wisdom” (19:8) so that your heart may rejoice (19:9) even now, and in eternal life.