3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Word of God Sunday
The Church has proclaimed today, the Third Sunday of
Ordinary Time, to be Word of God Sunday. This is a new celebration that Pope
Francis instituted only 2 years ago, and the emphasis is on the meaning and
importance and celebration of the holy scriptures. Sacred scripture is
necessary for our understanding of God and how he has revealed himself to us.
St. Paul told Timothy that,
“All Scripture
is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good
work.”
It is through scripture that
God reveals himself to us in very important and meaningful ways, but
the Word of God is not just relegated to the written word. Jesus did not walk
around with the scriptures. He studied them and opened his listeners’ hearts
and minds to how they applied to him as the Messiah, but he was the
scriptures for them, and the word of God lived and preached was the first
gospel.
The first books of the New Testament were not written
until almost 20 years after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. The first gospel,
Mark, wasn’t written until around the year 67, and the other gospels twenty to
thirty years after that. Up until that time the word was preached, not read. It
was lived by the disciples, and that experience was so deep and effective that
the roots of the Church were firmly planted and grew strong. The preaching of
Peter that first Pentecost led to over 3000 people being baptized! We hear in
the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles dedicated themselves to the preaching
of the word and to prayer. According to St. Clement, by the time of the death
of the last apostle, the gospel had been preached and churches had been
established throughout the entire Roman empire. And the canon of scripture has
been handed down to us, unchanged and unbroken, since the 4th
century.
Mark has Jesus starting his public ministry today proclaiming
the gospel. The Word of God proclaimed the word of God. The gospel Jesus
proclaimed was so compelling and life changing that the apostles left everything,
their work, their family, their way of life, to follow him. To them the word of
God was not something just captured on a page, it was alive before them. We
speak a lot about living the gospel. To the disciples, the gospel was literally
living amongst them.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews says that
“Indeed, God’s word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. It
penetrates and divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the
reflections and thoughts of the heart.” The word of God is alive. Sacred
scripture is not ancient history, it is current reality. It is your reality. It
can and should cut you to the bone and reveal your true self to yourself. It
should be so compelling that it changes the course of your life. Can you see
now how the living word of God, physically present to the apostles, drove them
to leave hearth and home and follow him? Has it done the same to you?
I think it is serendipitous that the readings today
are about the calling of the apostles. The word of God is always compelling, it
always calls us to do something. It always challenges us to change. Jesus
didn’t invite Peter, James and John to join a book club. He asked them to follow
him in a completely new way of thinking and a new way of life. Jesus’ message
was always that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and it was. His was the kingship
that was at hand. His message was that God is not just found in some faraway
heaven or even just in words on a page. God is found in the most common places,
in the most everyday activities, and in the most personally intimate
situations.
I do not think it was by accident that Jesus first
called fishermen, because the analogy of fishing for men is so perfect for our
own call to discipleship. There are many different ways to fish. Sometimes you
throw a net to catch as many as you can, and then sort out the good catch from
the poor later on. The word of God is broadcast far and wide in many ways, in preaching
and teaching, in live gatherings and through mass media, and some people accept
it and many do not. It is not up to the fisher to discriminate; it is his or
her job to simply spread the net and then let the Holy Spirit haul in the catch
of souls.
Sometimes you target a specific fish when fishing. How
many here are fly fishers? It is an active activity rather than a passive one. When
I bait fish, I cast the line to a place where I think the fish might be and let
it sit there a while, hoping to get a bite. I wait for the fish to come to me.
Fly fishing is more like hunting. When fly fishing I cast the fly upstream of
where I think the fish may be and let the line float back down to that spot. We
call it presenting the fly to the fish. I propose the bait to them so that they
discover it naturally. I make it their idea, not mine. And if I don’t get a
strike immediately, I pull the line and try again. The fish in a stream or lake
are constantly moving, searching for food, working in the currents and water temperature
changes. Good fishers understand this and go to where the fish are. They
understand the everyday life of the fish and constantly correct how they
present the fly or the bait.
Effective ministers of the word present the word, as
it were, and allow it to flow to where the people are, naturally. And we keep
trying, adjusting the message to the everyday life of the people. The word,
whether written or spoken, doesn’t change. The gospel is always the gospel, but
the way it is presented must remain relevant to each and every recipient. The
word of God has little to do with the messenger. It is effective in and of
itself. Even the reluctant prophet, such as Jonah today, can change hearts.
We have a wonderful combination of the written and
preached word here at Mass, don’t we? The Church has structured the scriptural
presentation of the word very deliberately throughout the liturgical year.
Every Sunday, every Mass, has specific readings laid out. There are three
cycles of readings, A, B, and C, that rotate on a three-year progression. Every
three years you will hear the same readings on that specific Sunday. Cycle A
focuses on the gospel of Matthew, Cycle B on Mark, and Cycle C on Luke. John is
sprinkled throughout each cycle, especially during the Easter season. Three
years ago, on the third Sunday in Ordinary Time we had these same readings. But
even though we repeat the readings they never get stale or irrelevant.
People have asked me if I every recycle my homilies,
and I tell them no, I don’t think I should. Not just because that would be lazy
but because while the specific readings haven’t changed, I have. You have. That
is one of the amazing geniuses of the Word of God. You can read the same
passage today and a year from now and you will get something different out of
it each time. It will present to you and continue to call you to conversion
where you are in the stream today.
The word is actively alive in your life. How has it
changed you?
There is a difference in how we should experience the
word here at Mass. I think one of the positives for the changes we’ve had to
make due to Covid is the removal of the missalettes from the pews. We really
shouldn’t be reading along on our own during the Mass. The word must be
proclaimed to the community and received by the community. Reading is a
personal internal exercise. Listening is a communal exercise. When you are
required to listen to the reading you can be more focused on it and receive it
as the gift it truly is.
We oftentimes think that the Mass is only about the
Eucharist, but the Liturgy of the Word is just as important. Jesus is truly
present in the Mass in four ways – in the Assembly, in the priest, in the
Eucharist, and in the Word. Each manifestation of Jesus Christ is necessary and
must be present in each and every Mass.
Just as we break the bread and it is given to us, the
word is broken open for us to receive as well. Just as we do not take the
Eucharist, we receive it, we should not take the word by reading it at Mass but
receive it as it is being proclaimed. Jesus did not hand out leaflets, he
preached. The apostles received his message, and it was their reception and
acceptance of his message that drove them to conversion.
But what truly made the apostles effective ministers
of the gospel is that they gave themselves up completely to the mission that
Jesus gave them. His first words to him were a call to follow him, to be formed
by the living Word of God, to become his friends, to know him and to love him,
and to become active partners in the Kingdom of God. They became like him
because they shared his life with him, and he with theirs in the most intimate
ways. His final words to them upon his ascension were to go and make disciples
of all the nations, teaching them everything he had commanded them, presenting
the word of God both spoken and written. To guide future generations of
believers, us, to also share in the life of Jesus; to know him and to love him and
also become active partners in the Kingdom of God. To become living scripture
to the world.
