Pastor's Message

                 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus said to them “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”      Luke 4.21

           This Sunday, the first reading is taken from the Book of Nehemiah. Just by the way of context, there were three people of great significance at the time; Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. These individuals led the People of Judah exiled, in their return to Jerusalem from Babylon. And each exercised a different role in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its People. Zerubbabel rebuilt the Temple and 60 years later, Ezra, a scholar of the Law and scribe, tried to bring people back to the Lord their God; while Nehemiah rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

           In the reading today, Ezra, being a priest returned to Jerusalem to effect spiritual and social renewal among his People. For many years, the Word of God had been forgotten and Ezra worked hard to reestablish it. In the reading today, Ezra reads from the Book of Law to the people, and we hear that, “the ears of all the people were attentive to the Law until the sunsets.”  

          We read that the People were overwhelmed in the realization that they owed their deliverance to God! The majority of them shed tears contemplating the will and goodness of God. Ezra reminded them of a more important truth; the Presence of God, the Creator in their midst! This was a course for joy not mourning;

          “This Day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep; … Go on your way, eat rich foods and drink sweet wine and share with those who have nothing prepared.  For today is Holy, to Our Lord.  Do not grief this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your Strength;”

          Brothers and sisters, we are the blessed of the Lord; This is why Luke the evangelist in Gospel today, calls you, “Theophilus;” “God Loving.” Luke tells us the purpose of his writing; It’s to make us believe in the fulfillment of God’s Salvific Plan.

          "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.” “Today, this scriptural passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

          Jesus declares that he is the fulfillment of all promises: To Abraham “I will make you the Father of a Great Nation, and all the People of the world will be blessed through you.” To David, the King; “I will build you a House.” To Mary, “Behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, he will be great and will be the Son of the Most Holy God.”

          Today Luke proclaims Jesus, as the one in whom all Scripture is fulfilled. Jesus is again Presence of God that Adam and Eve had lost in the Garden of Eden. In Jesus, God again anew was in the midst of his People.

          Brothers and sisters, who live in this time of fulfillment. We are anointed by the same Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation. St Paul in the 2^nd Reading reminds us that we are anointed in the Spirit and endowed with a variety of gifts for the common good. In an analogy of the human body and its parts, St. Paul tells us, that, it would be unthinkable for us, not to cooperate.

          We are part of one another and each one of us is an indispensable component of the whole.

          We belong to the body which is the Church, with Christ as its Head. Blessed are you because you believe.